Access to Clean Drinking Water

Sayap Africa would like to provide drinking water to high schools in medium and rural cities in Africa. We have already done so to Eseka High School of more than 2000 students in Cameroon

While Northern Africa has 92% safe water coverage, Sub-Saharan Africa remains at a low 60% of coverage – leaving 40% of the 783 million people in that region without access to clean drinking water. Contaminated water can transmit diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. Contaminated drinking-water is estimated to cause 502 000 diarrhea deaths each year.  The 48 least developed countries did not meet the target of the Millennium in 2010, but substantial progress has been made with 42 per cent of the current population in these countries gaining access to improved drinking-water sources since 1990.

Sharp geographic, sociocultural and economic inequalities persist, not only between rural and urban areas but also in towns and cities where people living in low-income, informal settlements usually have less access to improved sources of drinking-water than other residents.

Sayap Africa believes that when water comes from improved and more accessible sources, people, especially women spend less time and effort in physically collecting it, meaning they can be productive in other ways. It can also result in greater personal safety by reducing the need to make long or risky journeys to collect water. Better water sources also mean less expenditure on health, as people are less likely to fall ill and incur medical costs and are better able to remain economically productive.

With children and students particularly at risk from water-related diseases, access to improved sources of water can result in better health and therefore better school attendance, with longer-term consequences for their lives.