Meeting the Sanitation, Hygiene and Water MDG Targets
Meeting the water and sanitation MDGs remains one of highest priorities of AMCOW, with sanitation, in particular, lagging badly and needed particular focus. While massive strides have been made in delivering potable water to unserved communities, achievements in the sanitation sector have been much lower. This means that millions of people in Africa are still vulnerable to water-borne and hygiene related diseases, such as cholera. Diarrhoea, the incidence of which is linked to access to safe drinking water, access to improved sanitation facilities, and good hygiene practices, remains one of the biggest killers in Africa.

While delivery of new services is a major focus of this theme, the effective management of existing services is equally important, as water services in many parts of Africa provide interrupted supplies of poor quality water, and water and sewage treatment works are poorly maintained and operated. The latter has impacts both on the quality of water provided, but also on pollution of water resources.

In this regard, while there is a strong focus on the delivery of water and sanitation infrastructure, equally critical is the promotion of good hygiene practices, ensuring sustainable funding for operation and maintenance of services, and capacity building and training in the operation and maintenance of services.

Other areas that are critical are ensuring that there are appropriate pricing and tariff policies in place to support sustainable operation and maintenance of services, and that the types of services provided are financial sustainable in the long-term.
The focus areas under this theme are as follows:

• Create enabling policy framework
• Capacity building and training
• Governance
• Improved water use efficiency
• Review, monitoring and reporting

• Raise the profile of sanitation and hygiene
• Strengthen collaboration with civil society and partner institutions

Download the action plan