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 Printable version |
Access to water in sub-Saharan Africa: Does the indicator address the health risk? |
Environnement, Risques & Santé. Volume 11, Number 4, 282-6, Juillet-Août 2012, Article original
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 Résumé
Article gratuit
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Author(s) : Stéphanie Dos Santos |
Summary : According to the Millennium development goals (MDG), in 2012, 800 million people worldwide still had no access to safe drinking water. Sub-Saharan Africa records the lowest rate: two persons in five still lack this access. This article aims to demonstrate that the MDG drinking water target, both by its definition and the data used to define it, does not address the health risks related to water access, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. This statistic is based only on the source of water, but does not include aspects of accessibility related to distance and/or time required to collect water, the cost, or the quality and quantity used, although all of these affect health outcomes. In Ouagadougou, if only two aspects of accessibility are taken into account (the quantity available at home and distance to the water point), the rate of water access is half that of that used by the MDG. A relevant indicator of access to water is needed as leverage for the adoption of effective public health policies. Access to drinking water has been defined as a human right since 2010. |
Keywords : drinking water, indicator, public health, sub-Saharan Africa |
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