Amref Health Africa Calls for Increased Focus and Investment on Providing Safe Water to People Living

in Marginalised Rural and Urban Informal Settlements

On Tuesday, March 22, Amref Health Africa will join the global community in celebrating the World
Water Day, notably the first following adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in
November 2015. The launch of the SDGs has renewed hope for millions of African women and children
who spend 40 billion hours annually walking for water. Water is central to everything including
agriculture, food security and nutrition, sanitation, hygiene and overall health, industry, human
settlement and development in general means.
This years theme Water and Jobs rhymes well with the cardinal role water plays in providing livelihood
to millions of people across Africa. Unfortunately, lack of sustainable access to clean water has an
enormous negative impact on development particularly for women and girls who are the main water
carriers in more than 70% of households without water. As a result, they miss out on vital activities that
can provide a path out of poverty, such as getting an education or earning an income. In rural Africa,
women spend 26% of their time collecting water, as they walk at least five miles to the nearest water
source. In the dry season when water becomes scarcer, this time doubles. Walking to remote water
sources, further exposes women to the risk of injury, sexual harassment and animal attacks. Moreover,
women are subject to adverse health effects from constantly carrying water containers weighing up to
20kg on their heads, hips, or backs. Lack of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is one of the greatest
obstacles to poverty alleviation and economic growth. The World Bank Water and Sanitation Programme
(WSP) estimates that the lack of WASH can cause a 2 to 7% downward pull on Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) annually, whereas providing WASH has an equally positive impact.
Water plays a key role in promoting healthcare at health facilities. However, 42% of health facilities in
Africa do not have access to safe water while every minute a newborn baby dies from infection caused
by a lack of safe water and an unclean environment. Boosting water and sanitation investments in
hospitals and clinics in low income countries is essential to reduce maternal and newborn deaths. Many
women in developing countries give birth at home, often without access to clean water and toilets,
exposing themselves and their babies to infections. Clean water is essential to prevent sepsis or cord
infections, and limit transmission of diseases. Notably, 15% of all maternal deaths are caused by
infections in the 6 weeks after childbirth mainly due to unhygienic conditions during home deliveries and
in institutions. Another of the 5 major causes of maternal death and disability, sepsis, is caused when
clean water and adequate sanitation are not available to a woman during labor and childbirth.
Sanitation-related illnesses debilitate and kill an estimated one million Africans every year, as well as
inhibit economic growth and limit access to education and life opportunities. People suffering from
illnesses related to poor sanitation occupy 50% of the hospital beds in sub-Saharan Africa and account
for 12% of the health budget. An estimated 160 million people are infected with schistosomiasis or
bilharzias, a parasitic disease from flatworms that causes tens of thousands of deaths annually. About
500 million people are at risk of trachoma, which threatens 146 million with blindness and six million
with visual impairment. Sustained access to adequate WASH is the best conceivable preventive health
care, which is 10 times cheaper than curative care. Lack of clean water, sanitation and hygiene costs subSaharan African countries more in lost GDP than the entire continent gets in development aid.
Depending on the country and region, economic benefits have been estimated to range from US$3 to

US$34 for each dollar invested in clean water and sanitation. In sub-Saharan Africa, treating largely
preventable diarrhea consumes an estimated 12 per cent of health budgets.
During the last 60 years, Amref Health Africa has been responding to this need by working with local
experts and communities to co-create sustainable solutions for increased access to safe water. In over 10
countries, we are increasing community usage of technologically appropriate improved water supply
services through provision of appropriate water supply infrastructure in underserved rural, peri-urban
and urban communities, targeting mainly schools and health facilities. Water quality is core in our work.
We are therefore supporting water source protection at village, school and health facility levels to
prevent contamination. Besides, we are building the capacity of local government officials and
community health volunteers to monitor water quality at source and point of use using water quality
testing methods including field test kits, government water quality testing laboratories and Amref Health
Africa laboratories. In order to realize optimal outcomes, Amref Health Africa is intensifying programme
integration to ensure WASH is integrated with HIV, malaria, diagnostics, maternal health and child
health. Further, we lobby for increased investment in safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation
through policy, research and targeted campaigns.
As we mark this important day, Amref Health Africa calls on development partners, governments, civil
society, private sector and other players in the WASH space to systematically increase investments
geared towards provision of safe water in Africa. This should be focused on women and children living in
marginalized rural and urban informal settlements.
This is the surest way of delivering lasting health change in Africa.

#CLEAN WATER TRANSFORM COMMUNITIES!