Africa faces huge challenges with multiple issues that adversely affect public health. One major challenge is the ability for both rural and urban Africans to access a clean water supply. According to the WHO (2006), only 59% of the world’s population had access to adequate sanitation systems, and efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goal, which is aiming for 75% by the year 2015, will fall short by nearly half a billion people.
The situation of access to clean water and sanitation in rural Africa is even more dismal than the previous statistics imply. The WHO (2006) stated that, in 2004, only 16% of people in sub-Saharan Africa had access to drinking water through a household connection (an indoor tap or a tap in the yard). Not only is there poor access to readily accessible drinking water, even when water is available in these areas, there are risks of contamination due to several factors. When wells are built and water sanitation facilities are developed, they are improperly maintained to due to limited financial resources.
SLOCA is therefore committed to providing clean water to the communities through construction of clean water sources and renovating the existing ones without asking money from community people.
Before the people in communities used to walk long distances or even find unclean waters from swamps and other places. The implications of lack of clean water and access to adequate sanitation are widespread. Young children die from dehydration and malnutrition, results of suffering from diarrheal illnesses that could be prevented by clean water and good hygiene (Metwally, Ibrahim, Saad, & Abu El-Ela, 2006).
