Water, Hygiene & Sanitation

Water is a precious natural resource, vital for life, development and environment( UN WATER/ AFRICA). Access to clean water is also considered a basic human right. Depending on how it occurs and how it is managed, water can be a matter of life and death. When too much or too little, it can bring destruction, misery or death( UN WATER/AFRICA).

In sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls spend an estimated 40 billion hours a year collecting water. An estimated 400 million school days are lost each year due to water-related diseases, with 272 million lost to diarrhoea alone. A staggering 784 million people around the globe are without basic water access. 40% of this figure live in sub-Saharan Africa ( globalciticen.org). More people die from unsafe water than from all forms of violence, including war. Diarrhoea disease, caused primarily by unsafe water and poor sanitation kill more children under 5 years old than malaria, AIDS and measles combined ( lifewater. org). Most people in Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, lack access to clean water and improved sanitation than anywhere in the world. Research has even proven that poorer people pay more for clean water ( global citizen.org).

Likewise, more than 70% of the population in Eastern and Southern Africa ( 340 million people) have no access to basic sanitation services. Amongst these, 98 million people ( 19 per cent) practise open defecation, 179 million use unimproved facilities and 63 million share sanitation facilities ( UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa). Poor sanitation and high-risk hygiene behaviours confine the poor in a vicious cycle of poor health, environmental degradation, malnutrition, reduced productivity and loss of incomes( UNICEF/ for every child).

In schools, for example, over 50 million school- aged children in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, have no access to sanitation services while 117 million have no access to handwashing facilities. The need to move populations along the service ladder- not just away from open defecation is Paramount. ACEF is committed to provide a lasting solution to the water and sanitation crises in Africa through advocacy to rural communities across Africa on the need for use of good hygiene and sanitation facilities. We are also to provide water purification tablets, water filters, provision of taps, development of point-of-use water and sanitation technologies, construction of public latrines, as well as modernisation and or construction of latrines in schools across Africa. Join and support ACEF today to fix Africa's water, hygiene and sanitation challenges to prevent diseases and consequent deaths.