Lack of access to improved water and sanitation are still a daily reality and a high-priority policy issue for a majority of citizens in 34 African countries, a new analysis of Afrobarometer survey data shows.
In surveyed countries, half of the population goes without enough clean water for home use, while 44% of surveyed communities lack access to a piped water supply and 72% lack access to sewerage – and access rates are even worse in rural areas. Across much of Africa, citizens rate their governments’ performance on water and sanitation issues as “fairly” or “very” poor.
In observance of World Water Day (March 22), Afrobarometer data amplifies the voices of ordinary Africans who call on their governments to address inadequate water supply and sanitation as a top priority. Results of the analysis are detailed in Afrobarometer Dispatch No. 16, available at www.afrobarometer.org.
The key findings in the report include: Water and sanitation ranks fourth among important problems that citizens say their governments must address. One in five respondents (22%) rate water and sanitation among their top three priorities.
According to the report, about half (49%) of respondents went without enough clean water for home use at least once in the year preceding the survey (Figure 1).
It also reported that majority of citizens (54%) can only access water outside of their home and compound; 21% have a water source inside their compound but outside their home; and just one in four (24%) have a water source inside their home (Figure 2).
Four of 10 surveyed communities (44%), according to the survey, have no piped water supply. Rural areas are more likely to lack a piped water supply (63%) than urban areas (15%).
“A majority (55%) of African citizens rate their government’s handling of water supply and sanitation as “fairly bad” or “very bad” (Figure 3). Negative ratings are highest in Egypt (78%), Cameroon (75%), and Nigeria (71%) and lowest in Algeria (23%), Malawi (28%), and Botswana (31%),” the report further disclosed.
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