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Now is not the time to turn off the tap...

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This final instalment in my blog series will take a look to the future, where I will unpack the topic of water and sanitation in relation to the pressing issue of climate change. Several climate change studies predict that there will be fewer light precipitation events and more frequent heavy precipitation events, where this is particularly exaggerated in the tropics. According to  Cann et al. (2013) , one of the detrimental effects of climate change on water and sanitation is the rise in water-borne diseases due to more frequent and intense flood events.  The o utbreaks of disease were associated most frequently with contamination of drinking water supplies (57.3%) . Flooding can lead to contamination through the   widespread spillage of faecal matter into the environment , (as can be highlighted  in Figure 1) as well as the risk of damage to sewers and wastewater treatment plants. The contamination of water supplies poses  an enormous risk to developing countries, such as Africa, whe
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The female sanitation experience

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Women and girls are disproportionately affected by the lack of safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, and hygiene facilities in the home, at school, and at work. It is vital that the needs of females are prioritised in order to achieve gender equity and to lock the potential of half of global society .  Women are not only responsible for collecting water, a time-consuming and onerous task, but they also face other sanitation related obstacles, which compromise their ability to lead a healthy, safe and productive life . In my previous blogs, I have explored the lacking availability and accessibility of sanitation facilities within communities where it has become evident that most households do not possess a private toilet. This disproportionately effects women who are forced to use insecure facilities outside the home, posing many health risks, as these facilities are often unclean and ill-maintained. Where toilets aren't available or accessible, it is not uncommon that resident
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Streams of shit: Sanergy to the rescue?

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As we have discussed in previous posts, one of the most effective ways to prevent dangerous sanitation practices, such as open defecation, is to maintain a well-functioning toilet that is safe and accessible for all. So how can we do this? Although current practices and facilities are less than adequate, the question is not whether to wipe them out and replace them with large-scale networked infrastructures, but instead, we need to tap into the everyday micro-politics of sanitation ,  to create a more dignified and safe sanitation experience.  A market-based approach: the "Fresh Life" toilet Take a look in this video below: Sanergy was designed in response to  rapid urbanisation and impending water scarcity . As a result of densely populated informal urban settlements, there is an abundance of human waste. Imagine if your waste wasn't flushed away after every visit to the toilet. Where would you put it? What if this was the case for yo
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Continued chaos: the effects of the colonial overhang on the provision of water and sanitation

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As per the second part of this series in which I aim to break down the colonial overhang that persists within the water and sanitation sector, this post will reflect upon the ways in which these colonial legacies are entangled within the infrastructure, delivery and provision of water and sanitation within Mombasa, a coastal city in Kenya.  Water and sanitation issues can be traced back to the colonial era, where cities are seen to have been fragmented since their colonial origins . Urban waterscapes often  resemble archipelagos rather than continuous networks , existing as a consequence of the skewed distribution of water and sanitation services, where residents have no choice but to look  " beyond the network ". This approach subsequently encourages alternative, heterogenous forms of water supply to appear, particularly within low-income settlements. A Case-Study of Mombasa Mombasa is Kenya's second largest city after Nairobi, located on the edge of the Indian Ocean and
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WASHing away colonial legacies

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In my first post I made a conscious decision to take a de-colonial approach within my writing in order to fully dissect the ways in which water and sanitation are framed. In this post I aim to dismantle the WASH sector, which, like much of development practices, is  inherently political, and thus I hope that by unpacking the deep rooted manifestations of colonisation within Africa, I will be able  decolonise our minds and somewhat WASH away these lingering colonial legacies... Knowledge colonialism Despite the fact that the decolonisation of Africa took place from the mid 1950s to 1975, the reality is that "knowledge colonialism" still very much exists, where knowledge creation and dissemination is shaped by the Global North. In addition to this, a  theoretical vacuum  has long existed within much of the developing world, particularly Africa, where, just like the colonial economy, the extraction of knowledge, has long been  organised in such a way that it responds to the d
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Managing the subsurface: groundwater contamination in Kampala, Uganda

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Groundwater resources are the most important source of drinking water in Africa. In this weeks post, I will discuss Sub-Saharan Africa's poor waste management practices  and thus the contamination of groundwater in this region. Lets take a look... A Study of Kampala, Uganda  In 2007, a study was completed within the peri-urban site of Bwaise III, located in the northern part of Kampala city, with one of the highest population growth rates in the district . This research is effective in the ways that it synthesises the impacts of  land-use as well as the natural effects of its hydrogeological characteristics on the shallow groundwater storage. Figure 1: Map of the Kampala District showing the location of the Bwaise III Parish Bwaise III is a  typical poor, urban settlement that is largely unplanned , with many informal practices occurring to facilitate prosperity amongst a large and rapidly growing population. In areas where households are packed together into densely populated nei
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The future is in our hands: Global Handwashing Day 2021

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Last week, on the 15th October, it was Global Handwashing day. This day was designed to promote proper sanitation practices and to increase awareness of handwashing as a preventative measure of illness and disease, where it acts as a tool t o remove barriers to education, economic opportunity and equity .   "It’s simple. It’s right there and doesn’t cost anything" Miryam  Wahrman In this post, I will outline how promoting handwashing as a mechanism to prevent disease and illness, is not quite as simple as biologist: Miryam Wahrman (William Patterson University of New Jersey), framed it in a 2020 Guardian article, where in reality, there a lot of different  facets to the faucet...      The "father of handwashing", Dr Semmelweis discovered the importance of handwashing over 150 years ago, and even though we have had this knowledge for over a century, handwashing  still remains severely neglected as a public health investment . In West Africa, as shown in the figure be
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