There is agreement on centrality of WASH service delivery for progress in most of the SDGs such as SDG 1 (ending poverty), SDG 2 (ending hunger), SDG 3 (good health), SDG 4 (quality education), or SDG 17 (sustainable cities). There are, however, deficiencies in isolating drivers for differential progress towards WASH levels in informal and formal settlements globally and in Sub-Saharan Africa. The reported national averages for progress towards SDG 6 overshadow retarded progress in the same for informal settlements.
Distinct relationships are drawn between water and sanitation, however water supply has received greater attention than sanitation. The Agenda 2030 identifies access to safely managed drinking water as a human right and emphasizes movement to achieving a universal and equitable access for all, but, most measurements in water service delivery do not employ the “safely managed water” standard, a result of existence of authority papers that do not refer to safely managed water.
It is projected that over half of the world population growth expected by 2050 (1.3 out of 2.2 billion globally) will occur in Africa. Providing this growing population with access to safely managed water and adequate sanitation services, while critical, is not the sole challenge for Africa. The demands for water, energy, food, employment, healthcare, and education will also increase. Population growth in cities may lead to dramatic increase of slums. Despite steady improvements in living conditions in urban slums between 2000 and 2015, rate of new home construction lagged far behind urban population growth-rate. This overshadowed gains made in housing, water and sanitation.
Conclusions
Interventions in water and sanitation are urgently needed in informal settlements of Sub-Saharan Africa to develop them into sustainable communities. Water and sanitation for informal settlements requires a different approach from that offered for formal settlements. This must employ a cost – benefit analysis participatory approach to co-develop sustainable solutions.
There is need to standardize the benchmark for progress towards attainment of SDG6. Use of different benchmarks misguides policy and practice in WASH. Additionally, there is need to measure progress towards SDG6 within sub-populations in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Development of new homes need to match urban population growth-rate to sustain gains made in housing, water and sanitation. Declining coverage of sewerage services underscores need to fast-track appropriate on-site sanitation. This requires coherence in the whole sanitation chain, notions for sludge management, increased investment, and improved monitoring.