FCFA recently developed and launched a portal that helps to provide insights into the links between future climate and effective WASH service delivery in African cities. The online resource includes details for all of the nine countries where FRACTAL works and draws on information gathered during the course of the project.
Access to adequate safe water, sanitation and hygiene is known collectively as WASH, and was recognised as a human right by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010. One of the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG 6) expressly aims to ensure the “availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. Yet SDG 6 also highlights how 2.2 billion people worldwide still lack access to safely managed drinking water, and an even greater number (3 billion people) lack basic handwashing facilities at home. At the same time, many of these gaps in access to WASH arise in urban areas. The current trend across Africa is towards rapid urban growth. The urban contexts therefore need to be properly understood so that decision makers can provide access to adequate WASH and improve access to WASH where necessary. Coupled with the increased risks that are associated with climate change – which include increased water stress and other water related issues – there is also a need to understand the existing urban water and sanitation systems, and to better understand how those systems can grow to support growing populations while also being resilient when faced with climate risks.
Together with Zutari, one of the FRACTAL consortium partners, FCFA have developed a portal of information around climate change, urban water, sanitation and hygiene for the countries where FRACTAL has been working over the past few years. The portal also considers the other projects and regions where FCFA is involved: Amma-2050, HyCristal and Umfula. The aim is to provide country-level information around WASH that can help urban decision-makers begin to understand their national water and sanitation systems and to consider the issues that they are facing and may face in the future in their cities. The research teams included key issues for each country with regards to sanitation service delivery and water supply as well as emphasizing country specific WASH resilience questions that they felt it would be helpful to consider further.
For more information, please see FCFA’s WASH portal here.
