Sanitation in Africa: access to improved sanitation facility and improvement index

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BOTSWANA

Urban population

Rural population

Total population

^*

5.6%3.7% 7.4% 14.8%

29.6%

7.4%

37.0% 5.6%

48.1%

22.2%

18.5%

16.7%

33.3%

29.6%

7.4%

13.0%

Urban population

^*

Rural population

^*

*(N=54 countries)

WESTERN

SAHARA

MOROCCO

ALGERIA

LIBYA

EGYPT

CHAD NIGER

MAURITANIA

TUNISIA

SUDAN

SOUTH SUDAN

ETHIOPIA

DJIBOUTI

SOMALIA

KENYA UGANDA

RWANDA BURUNDI

TANZANIA

MALAWI ZAMBIA

ANGOLA

ZIMBABWE

MOZAMBIQUE

COMOROS

SEYCHELLES

MAURITIUS

BOTSWANA NAMIBIA

MADAGASCAR

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

SSA NA A SSA NA A

NORTHERN AFRICA

AFRICA SOUTH

AFRICA LESOTHO

SWAZILAND DEMOCRATIC

REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO CONGO

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

CAMEROON

GABON EQUATORIAL

GUINEA SAO TOMÉ AND PRINCIPE

NIGERIA BENIN

TOGO GHANA

CÔTE D’IVOIRE LIBERIA

CAPE VERDE

SIERRA LEONE GUINEA GUINEA-BISSAU GAMBIA SENEGAL

MALI

BURKINA FASO

ERITREA

6 and more 4 - 5.99 2 - 3.99 1 - 1.99 less than 1 no data Improvement index

100 80 60 40 20 0

500 km

Percentage of population with access to improved sanitation facility in 2011

Sanitation in Africa

Africa 2013 - African Studies Centre

Access to improved sanitation facility and improvement index

National population

The columns on the big map show the percentage of the population that had access to an improved sanitation facility in 2011. An improved sanitation facility is defined as “one that hygienically separates human excreta from human contact” (WHO/UNICEF 2013, p. 12). This includes pour/flush facilities (a piped water system, septic tank or pit latrine), ventilated and improved pit (VIP) latrines, pit latrines with a slab and composting toilets.

The improvement index is the percentage growth of the population with access to an improved sanitation facility divided by the percentage growth of the population in the period between 1990 and 2011. In countries with an index of less than 1, population growth is higher than the growth of access to an improved sanitation facility. In terms of shading on the three maps, the darker the green, the higher the improvement index, i.e. the better the country’s performance regarding the provision of sanita- tion facilities.

Source:

WHO/UNICEF (2013), Progress on sanitation and drinking-water: 2013 update, 14-35, Geneva / New York:

World Health Organization / United Nations Children's Fund.

This information was compiled by Dick Foeken, Marcel Rutten

and Nel de Vink

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Angola C. Afr. Rep.

Comoros**

Eritrea**

Ethiopia Liberia*

Malawi

Namibia

Senegal Benin

Congo*

Gabon*

Libya Seychelles Zimbabwe Botswana

Rwanda

B. Faso Chad D.R.Congo Ghana Guinea Kenya Madagascar Mali

Mauritania Mozambique Niger Uganda Tanzania

National population

Burundi G.-Bissau*

S.Tomé + Principe*

Sierra Leone Swaziland Algeria

Cape Verde*

Morocco South Africa Egypt

Tunisia

Cameroon Côte d’Ivoire

Djibouti Zambia Nigeria

Togo Gambia*

Lesotho*

Mauritius Somalia*

Angola Botswana C. Afr. Rep.

Comoros**

Liberia*

Mauritania S. Tomé + Principe*

Djibouti Gambia*

G.-Bissau*

Morocco Somalia*

South Africa

Mauritius

Chad Guinea Senegal

Benin B. Faso Burundi Ethiopia Ghana Kenya Madagascar Malawi Mali

Mozambique Niger Tanzania Uganda

Congo*

Gabon*

Swaziland

Libya S.Leone Zambia Zimbabwe

Lesotho*

Urban population

Cape Verde*

Tunisia

Egypt Algeria

Cameroon Côte d’Ivoire Eritrea**

Nigeria

D.R.Congo Namibia Rwanda Togo

Angola B. Faso C. Afr. Rep.

Comoros**

D.R.Congo Eritrea**

Ethiopia Ghana

Chad Guinea Madagascar Niger Uganda

Benin G.Bissau*

Liberia*

Malawi Mali Mozambique Namibia Senegal

Cameroon Libya Morocco

Rwanda Egypt

Algeria

Rural population

Burundi Côte d’Ivoire S. Leone Swaziland Botswana

Cape Verde*

S. Tomé + Principe*

Tunisia Kenya

Mauritania Tanzania Zambia

Djibouti Togo Gambia*

Lesotho*

Mauritius South Africa

Gabon* Congo*

Nigeria Somalia*

Zimbabwe NA NA

SSA

A

NA

National population

Growth access (%)

+100

+50

-50

0 +50 +100

-50

-100

^Growth

no access (%)

Growth access (%)

+100

+50

-50

0 +50 +100

-50

-100

^Growth

no access (%)

Growth access (%)

+100

+50

-50

0 +50 +100

-50

-100

^Growth

no access (%)

positive growth ‘access’, negative growth ‘no access’

positive growth ‘access’ > positive growth ‘no access’

positive growth ‘access’ ≤ positive growth ‘no access’

negative growth ‘access’

Africa Northern Africa Sub-Saharan Africa focus country of Dutch development assistence Underlined

:

2000 - 2011 1990 - 2008 *

**

SSA

A NA

Africa 2013 - African Studies Centre Sanitation in Africa

Access and no access to improved sanitation facility

The African Studies Centre (ASC)

The ASC in Leiden, founded in 1947, is the only research institute in the Netherlands devoted entirely to the study of Africa. Its primary aims are to undertake scientific research on Africa in the social sciences and humanities and to promote a better understanding of African societies. It is an independent institute but maintains close links with Leiden University, as part of LeidenGlobal. The ASC’s work is not only of importance to researchers but also to policy-makers, journalists, NGOs, businesses and other organizations.

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MDGs The number of people with access to improved sanitation facilities grew by about 195 million in Africa as a whole and by 129 million in Sub-Saharan Africa between 1990 and 2011 (WHO/UNICEF 2013). Although this is a definite improvement, the figures are still too low to achieve the MDG sanitation targets by 2015. By 2010, the five Northern African countries were expected to reach this goal but all but three (Angola, Botswana and South Africa) of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa were not (AMCOW 2012). The big map clearly shows that the majority of Sub-Saharan African countries have very limited access to improved sanitation, with an average of only 30% across the whole region.

Growth in ‘access’

The map shows the extent to which the number of people with access to an improved sanitation facility kept up with overall population growth between 1990 and 2011. For Africa as a whole, the growth in ‘access’ was 1.4 times higher than population growth, i.e. an improvement index of 1.4. The improvement index for Sub-Saharan Africa was the same. The map highlights the substantial differences between countries: some did quite well (Ethiopia in particular), while seven countries did not manage to keep up with the growth in their population.

Growth in ‘no access’

What can easily be overlooked is that, in the 1990-2011 period, the number of people with no access to improved sanitation grew substantially in Sub-Saharan Africa, namely by 233 million (or 61%). This is indicated in the three diagrams that show the percentage growth of both ‘access’ (y-axis) and ‘no access’ (x-axis). The shading indicates the degree of improvement. The top diagram shows that in all but eight African countries, growth in ‘access’ was combined with growth in ‘no access’. And the latter was even higher than the former in nine countries.

Urban-rural differences

There are big differences between urban and rural areas. There is much more green on the rural population map than on the urban population map, indicating a greater improvement index in the rural areas (Africa: 2.0; Sub-Saharan Africa: 1.8) than in the urban areas (both 1.4). And there are many more countries in the green and light-green zones of the rural diagram than in the urban diagram.

Challenges

Sub-Saharan Africa in particular faces two enormous challenges in terms of access to good sanitation. The first is that there are still extremely low levels of access to such facilities in the rural areas (24%) despite the improved situation in these areas between 1990 and 2011. The second challenge is the uphill task in the urban areas of keeping up with the rapid population growth, particularly in informal settlements.

References

AMCOW (2012), A snapshot of drinking water and sanitation in Africa – 2012 update. Publication prepared for the African Ministers’ Council on Water as a contribution to the Fourth Africa Water Week, Cairo, 14-15 May 2012.

WHO/UNICEF (2013), Progress on sanitation and drinking-water: 2013 update. Geneva / New York: World Health Organization / United Nations Children's Fund.

Source: WHO/UNICEF (2013)

African Studies Centre, Leiden T: 0031 71 527 3372 E: asc@ascleiden.nl www.ascleiden.nl www.facebook.com/ASCLeiden

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