Water and Sanitation - Africa

In this blog I will cover a range of different successful social businesses that are using the franchise model & micro- entrepreneurs  to help improve sanitation. PeePoo  A technology driven approach.  Is this the solution to the flying toilets ? The proposal is an one time, self sanitising single use biodegradable bag,Peepoo is aiming these products at people at the Base of the Pyramid, this concept was talked about in the last blog. In a study by  Vinneras B 2009 , it was found that these bags work as advertised, with no smell being released  from them when filled with faeces.  The bag is bio degradable so there is so harm to the environment. The fecal waste in the bags also after 2 to 4 weeks will be sanitised so there is no harmful pathogens present. The waste then can be used as compost and organic fertiliser which is great for local farmers.  This is great for areas which don't have good facilities and c...

There are a large array of enterprises in Africa bring to help improve sanitation, many which operated by large transnational corporations, small enterprises and entrepreneurs. In this blog I will try and explore a range of examples Corporate social responsibility really started to make movement in the 1970s, you might be wondering what does this mean ?. It is when companies are aware of their social impact and try and create policies and agenda within the company to make a difference and help. Many companies find that it is a great boost to there brand image as the public are more willing to use there products or services if they are socially responsible. Here is a great news story about it  By the early 2000 this has developed and corporations are now focusing on the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) model. Now you may be wondering what BoP is  - it includes the people at the bottom of the pyramid and are those who earn below 2 dollars a day. This BoP market is being focused ...

It is so important that good sanitation and hygiene is implemented in schools because it is a key place of learning for children and therefore can become a model of good practice and therefore create an influence on children which could lead to better practitices being implemented in the community and at home  UNICEF (1998).  In Africa using data from 13 studies  it was found that only 14 % of people wash their hands after going to the toilet with soap. It is estimated that washing your hands helps reduce diarrhoea disease by 40 % Freeman Mc 2014 . Getting people to wash their hands is really important as it has shown to really help reduce cases of  diarrhoea disease. What is WASH all about ?? Its a term for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene each is dependent on each other and is focused at meeting these basic needs for millions of people. "Wash" is a project by Unicef and is active in around 100 countries, in 2013 £ 258 million w...

This blog will explore why poor sanitation & water supply leads to women and girls being more at risk in communities in Africa than men. Main issues females in Africa face compared to males. 1) Issue with responsibility:  Women and girls  in Africa are normally the responsible ones for collecting water in communities, in Kenya for example in 49 % of households it is women over the age of 15 who are responsible, in rural areas the pressure on women to get water is 6 times higher than urban areas.  2) Issue with distance & facilities:  Water sources can be as far as 30 minutes away and they might have to make multiple trips in one day. These sources are often very treacherous and dangerous - it is common for women to get crushed by wells collapsing or they slip as they climb down these open wells. Fisher J (2008) . Pit latrines are holes in the ground where people go to the toilet, they are not connected to any sewage system and thes...

This blog aims to find out if there is any link between between water scarcity and access to safe water in Africa What is water scarcity ? Absolute water scarcity is when more than 1000 people complete for a single flow unit of water of 100 000 m3/ year the same as 1000 m3/person/year  Falkenmark m 1989 .  While water stress is 600 m3/person/year.  Falkenmark  argues that for good health people need a min of 100 l of water every day for drinking, cooking and cleaning. The water stress index has become the most used measure of water scarcity and was created by Falkenmark m 1989  and is based on mean annual river discharge per year divided by population while this is good and can be easily used and applied around the world. In Damkjaer S and Tayler R 2017 paper they are critical of the water stress index. The problem with the index is that it is over reliant on river run off, and doesn't take into account that the landscape and climate is changeable,...

In the last blog I mentioned that h omes who were pipped and have a flush toilet had nearly 50 % reduction in diarrhoea cases  so why are not more people using pipped water ?.  There is a great article by Thompson J et al 2000  it explores how domestic water use over 30 years in East Africa has changed I will highlight some key findings from the paper that I am sure you will find very interesting. What has changed ? The change in water use is represented in figure 1 It found that people on average was using less water than 30 years ago - fell from 98.7 litres per day in 1967 and by 1997 people used 54.9 litres  Countries who were  largely piped such as Tanzania and Uganda -  water supplies from the network has stoped. This means people have to get their water from, elsewhere and take the risk that it could be contaminated or pay high prices to water kiosks. Consumption gap has reduced between pip...