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DEVELOPMENT: Sanitation, the Great Liberator?

Paula Fray - IPS/TerraViva*

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 15 2005 (IPS) - A high-level focus on sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa could help fast-track the Millennium Development Goals and free women on the continent from a cycle of poverty, child mortality and low productivity.

Women Leaders for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) are pushing for a higher profile for an issue they believe impacts on a range of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

"Politically, sanitation has no home. No one seeks a vote on the basis of a toilet," says Ugandan Minister of State for Water Maria Mutagamba, who chairs the African Ministers&#39 Council on Water, adding that sanitation usually falls within water, health and education.

Norwegian Minister of International Development Hilde Johnson acknowledges that sanitation is not the kind of campaign that gets thousands marching out on the streets chanting "Make toilets an issue" – but it is a subject that needs top-level attention and advocacy. "Attention provides resources," Johnson notes.

Mutagamba and Johnson are among the women leaders who have joined the United Nations children&#39s agency UNICEF, led by executive director Ann Veneman, to call for more attention and funds to help millions of African women and girls suffering disproportionately for lack of these basic services.

The WASH plea comes as about 170 world leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York to review progress on the MDGs, which include significant reductions in poverty, hunger and child mortality; universal primary education; and increased access to sanitation – all by the year 2015.

According to UNICEF, lack of safe water and sanitation remains one of the world&#39s most urgent health issues. About 1.1 billion people worldwide still lack safe water and 2.6 billion have no sanitation, according to a UNICEF and World Health Organisation (WHO) 2005 report titled "Water for Life".

The impact of poor sanitation extends across socioeconomic sectors, says Mutagama, noting that the provision of sanitation at school impacts on the education of girls. Other sectors include economic productivity, trade, health and the environment.

"Africa has tried, through policy frameworks and water reform, to deal with the issue but because of various occurrences, we have not caught up," said Mutagamba.

Outlining the challenges facing Africa in the provision of water and sanitation, Mutagamba said the issue was two-fold: "In rural areas there is increased poverty because of low productivity as a result of prolonged drought, climatic changes and degradation of the land. The land can no longer sustain the population," she said.

"As a result, people are flocking to urban centres and this is stretching the existing water and sanitation facilities. Where there is no sanitation, hygiene is a problem and so this compounds the problem."

Mutagama says interventions dedicated to water and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa are declining because of focuses on other priority areas. War has also strained meagre resources and the subsequent displacement of people further stretches the supply of water and sanitation.

Johnson acknowledged a range of difficulties in raising the profile of sanitation issues in the public arena. "This is affecting women and children primarily and they are the ones lagging behind most in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. We must really be advocates and put this higher on the agenda," she said at a press conference here Wednesday.

Johnson noted that while the world was generally on track to meet the MDGs, it was those MDGs which most affected women and children that were at risk. This includes MDG 7, which aims to halve, by 2015, "the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation".

UNICEF notes that sub-Saharan Africa is the only region likely to miss the MDG targets on both safe water and basic sanitation – "unless the world acts quickly to turn this around".

"In Africa, water and sanitation has always been a gender issue," Mutagamba told IPS, "and because of that it has never been an issue for discussion."

Mutagamba says an estimated 40 billion hours is spent each year by women walking to collect water in sub-Saharan Africa. "For the first time, women are about to learn that they can be liberated from these activities so that they can pursue economic productivity," she said.

Then, from a sanitation point of view, it is the woman who takes responsibility in the home for cleaning, and for looking after children ill from waterborne diseases.

Women leaders with WASH want to impress on women that they can make water and sanitation a business; they want women to teach their children about hygiene; they want women to assist in creating more hygienic conditions.

Mutagamba says providing water, water systems and taps is just one ingredient. "If there is no understanding of hygiene and if the water itself is not hygienic, the results would be like adding poison," she said.

Through WASH programmes, children are taught about hygiene at a young age. They also help governments link women with sanitation and hygiene programmes, and support the UNICEF drive to put safe water and basic sanitation into all primary schools by 2015.

The group met at UNICEF on Wednesday to set out their plan of action for Africa, which includes, says Mutagamba, "to bring to the attention of the global community the need for water and sanitation. We want to advocate for a higher level of commitment."

This awareness, says Mutagamba, aims to ensure that sanitation "gets a budget line"; is no longer an afterthought on the global arena; has allocated resources and encourages involvement at local community level.

On Wednesday night, the organisation hosted a roundtable discussion, "Achieving the Millennium Development Goals for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Africa with a Gender Perspective", at Unicef House. Key speakers included Madagascar&#39s President Marc Ravelomanana and Senegal&#39s Abdoulaye Wade.

"Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene habits play a major role in child mortality," said Veneman. "Bringing basic services to Africa&#39s women and girls could transform their lives and boost child survival in the region."

Currently, only 58 percent of Africans live within 30 minutes of a potable water source and only 36 percent have even a basic toilet.

UNICEF warns that the consequences are particularly severe for African women and children, "condemning millions to a life to illness, lost opportunities and virtual slavery".

"Women can be key agents of change if they are empowered and involved," said Johnson. "Since they are the primary victims of unsafe water and poor sanitation, we must start with them if we are to liberate Africa from cycles of illness, child mortality and low productivity."

*This story was produced for the TerraViva Millennium Development Goals Journal.