#5 Improving WASH: progress so far

Last week we saw that women are actually often at the forefront of bringing gender transformative WASH improvement; today, I want to further discuss the varied approaches that are proposed and taking place across African countries to address water and gender issues. 

Grassroots initiatives

One of the most common and celebrated ways in which WASH access is improved in African countries is through grassroots initiatives. The UN defines grassroots initiatives as "community-based approaches created to address localised problems". These bottom-up approaches allow locals to establish their own goals and come up with their own methods to achieve them as opposed to letting external managers take over local projects, which is essential for sustainably encouraging a participatory and anti-colonial development. 

A major benefit for women participating in such projects includes not only the possibility to earn an income from managing water supplies, but also the freeing-up of time to dedicate to other income-earning activities. For instance, in Ethiopia, the average time women spend providing water for their families has gone down from 8 hours per day to 5-20 minutes when benefitting from a community-based project. Studies suggest, however, that grassroots initiatives should take place as long term projects rather than short term fixes if sustainable WASH improvement is to be achieved. 

Top-down schemes

Another method that is often implemented to tackle WASH issues is top-down schemes, which are the opposite of grassroots initiatives. Africa's hydrogeology is very varied and there is therefore no few ways to help communities access groundwater (see Figure 1). However, it is evident in the map that large enough regions are affected by similar hydrogeological contexts (e.g. West and East Africa), so such schemes are popular for addressing challenges associated with the networking of water supplies between settlements affected by similar issues. The work of IGOs like the World Bank, UN and the WHO centre around helping large populations have access to WASH and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (see Figure 2). Nevertheless, an important limitation of these schemes is the risk that the demands of women in local regions are not addressed with enough detail, which is why combinations of these two types of schemes can be favourable to ensure a holistic management.

Figure 1: Map of hydrogeology (aquifer productivity) in Africa

Figure 2: Infographic showing progress so far for SDG on hygiene 

Community Cleaning Services (CCS)

One example that assimilates ideas from both of these approaches is the Community Cleaning Services initiative. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, CCS is a social micro-franchise that while having a top-down management approach as a partner of Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) and co-founded by SC Johnson, it also provides a way for young entrepreneurs to start their own businesses and improve the sanitation of public toilets. Through CCS, women are given the opportunity to take control of their local WASH management while also earning an income, which incentivises more women to free up time for this cause. Figure 3 below talks about the project in a little bit more detail!

Figure 3: Video Ad "Community Cleaning Services (CCS)"

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