In Safe Hands?: Water and Sanitation in Africa

  Sanitation Taboos: Menstrual Hygiene  Sanitation is far from homogenous, as Mcfarlane et al. (2014) explores in their paper about how sanitation is produced and sustained in informal settlements. A gendered lens is therefore needed to unveil some of the disparities in “everyday sanitation” that women experience. Women disproportionately bear the difficulties of sanitation inadequacies ( Bapat and Agarwal 2003 ) but are reluctant to discuss their experiences- partly because they deem water access and quality as more important than sanitation (ibid). Although they are intrinsically linked, Curtis et al. (2000) note that improved health outcomes are dependant more on adequate sanitation facilities (such as waste disposal) than water provision; reiterating the importance of sanitation that is often undervalued. But the key factor that underpins why sanitation is overlooked is that is a ‘taboo’ topic across several cultures around the world, including within Africa. It is uncommon for

  Safe Water  In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognised water and sanitation to be a human right. One aspect that defines this right is that water must be ‘safe’- free from microorganisms and other substances that can threaten one’s health. Chlorine has been used for over a century to disinfect water. It has contributed substantially to the increase in access to safe drinking water for millions of people around the world as it can be incorporated on varying scales- ranging from piped networks in urban areas, to household treatments in rural settings. Chlorination is regarded as the most affordable, reliable and effective method of water purification, especially because of its ability to kill the majority of pathogens responsible for diarrheal diseases in children (GEMS, 2018); thus being an approach endorsed by the WHO to improve water quality (2003). There is a plethora of epidemiology and economics literature that has concluded the wide-reaching benefits