Water Aid has called on governments in southern Africa to increase budgetary allocations for sanitation and hygiene.

This call was made during the Southern Africa Regional Senior Editor’s Webinar on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).

Water Aid Regional Director, Robert Kampala, said most governments in the region were providing low budgetary allocations to the sector.

‘Stakeholders in the sector and media need to remind their governments, through several channels, for them to appreciate that the provision of quality sanitation and hygiene remains a fundamental human right to every citizen in their countries’, Nyasa Times quoted Kampala as saying.

Malawi’s population is about 18 million, 13.8 million of the population do not have access to decent toilets, according to the director.

He also said more than 3,000 children die every year due to unclean water and poor sanitation.

In Zambia, according to Kampala, the inequality gap is widening as 6.8 million people still do not have access to water.

‘The country is faced with Covid-19 crisis and cholera outbreaks which are the perennial problem’, he said.

Kampala said that Covid-19 had exposed a lot of sanitation and hygiene challenges that needed urgent attention.

Water Aid Country Representation, Zambia, Pamela Chisanga, said, ‘We are faced with the challenges of Covid-19, sanitation and hygiene issues need to be addressed at all cost with the provision of necessary support’.

Source: Nyasa Times

Photo source: World Bank Photo Collection