All Cleansed Up

Welcome back! In this post I aim to provide perspective on the issues relating to faecal contamination and management.   Before we begin, it’s important to understand the reasons for faecal contaminated water across Africa. The basic yet controversial answer would be to blame citizens and development status. However, a more complex answer would question the dishonesty of ‘improved water sources and inadequate provisioning of proper management for faecal waste from the top-down level. Of course, we will be delving into the complex answer.  ‘Improved water sources’ First things first, we have to narrow down a definition of improved water sources. The  WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (2017 ) report defined drinking water as ‘by the nature of their design and construction, have the potential to deliver safe water’ with three conditions: (1) accessible on premises, (2) water should be available when needed and (3) be free from contamination. I’ll admit, even ...

Hi everyone. Welcome to my first post on water and sanitation in Africa. Of course, I am no expert on these matters but join me on my blogging journey 😀 Why the theme? Now, I’ll admit that I chose the theme of water and sanitation before I even experienced one lecture. That being said, I was immediately drawn to this specific thematic area due to my personal experience of different water and sanitation conditions to that of the UK. Although, not specific to Africa, India presents its own challenges within this area which made me want to explore the theme further. Growing up, my childhood holidays would be spent across different Indian states; Karnataka, Andra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra to name a few. Staying in villages meant that water would be fetched from a shallow groundwater well with a bucket and rope as well as boiling water in the kettle for drinking, cooking and bathing. Experiencing the vastly different water supply systems, makes me appreciate access to safe, tre...