Tuesday, August 12, 2008
One of Africa’s biggest problems is the non-existence of proper sanitation and good drinking water in many of its urban areas. Mountains of refuse are pretty much an accepted norm with open contests between human and animal scavengers. The situation is made worse by open sewers that make perfect breeding grounds for malaria, typhoid and diarrhea causing insects.
African governments have demonstrated astonishing inefficiency in managing water and sanitation for almost six decades. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation spends N10bn annually on sanitation, but still can’t get it right. So ordinary private individuals across Africa are now providing sanitation and water services to forestall the cycle of deaths resulting from poor sanitation.
However, it does appear the donor community still believes governments are better at providing basic services. We reproduce below a submission our colleagues at IMANI and IPN made two years ago to the U.K. government on how best donors and developing countries can increase access to basic services, such as health and education, in poor countries