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Lack of Safe Water, Sanitation Spurs Growing Dissatisfaction with Government Performance

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Lack of Safe Water, Sanitation Spurs Growing Dissatisfaction with Government Performance Afrobarometer Round 6 New data from 36 African countries Dispatch No. 76 | 22 March 2016 Lack of safe water, sanitation spurs growing dissatisfaction with government performance Afrobarometer Dispatch No. 76 | Corah Walker Summary If water is fundamental to life and human dignity, no issue is more pressing for 663 million people for whom access is still lacking (United Nations, 2015). As World Water Day (March 22) reminds us, safe and readily available water is a human right and an important contributor to public health, whether it is used for drinking, washing, food production, or recreational purposes. Contaminated water and inadequate sanitation help transmit diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, and typhoid; diarrheal deaths due to unclean drinking water are estimated at 502,000 each year, most of them of young children (World Health Organization, 2015). Improved access to safe water and sanitation boosts economic growth, contributes to poverty reduction, and is highly relevant to achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), from health and education to food security and environmental sustainability (World Bank, 2014). Substantial progress was made under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) initiative; worldwide, the target of reducing by half the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water was met in 2010. But in sub-Saharan Africa, most countries fell short, and achieving the new SDG No. 6 – ensuring access to water and sanitation for all by 2030 – will require intensive and sustained action. In observance of World Water Day, new findings from Afrobarometer’s Round 6 surveys in 36 African countries give voice to citizens who call on their governments to address inadequate water supply and sanitation as a top priority. Despite some infrastructure improvements, nearly half (45%) of Africans went without enough clean water for home use during the past year. More than half (51%) have to leave their compounds in order to access water. One- third of surveyed communities lack access to a piped-water system, and two-thirds lack access to sewage infrastructure. Citizens’ ratings of their government’s performance in providing water and sanitation services worsened over the past decade: A majority say their government is doing a “fairly” or “very” poor job. Afrobarometer surveys Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions, and related issues across Africa. Five rounds of surveys were conducted between 1999 and 2013, and results from Round 6 surveys (2014/2015) are currently being released. Afrobarometer conducts face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice with nationally representative samples, which yield country-level results with a margin of sampling error of +/-2% (for a sample of 2,400) or +/-3% (for a sample of 1,200) at a 95% confidence level. This dispatch draws mainly on Round 6 data from nearly 54,000 interviews in 36 countries, with over-time comparisons for some countries that were also surveyed in previous rounds (see Appendix Table A.1 for a list of countries and survey dates). Copyright © Afrobarometer 2016 1 The contextual data on service infrastructure reported here are captured before and after interviews with survey respondents. Afrobarometer field teams make on-the-ground observations in each census enumeration area (EA) about services and facilities that are available in the area. These observations are recorded and confirmed by survey field supervisors. Since the EAs visited are selected to represent the population of the country as a whole, these data provide reliable indicators of infrastructure and service availability. Interested readers should watch for additional Round 6 findings to be released over the coming months (see http://afrobarometer.org/countries/results-round). Key findings . Across 36 countries, almost half (45%) of respondents say they went without enough clean water at least once during the previous year. One in five (19%) did so “many times” or “always.” . A majority of Africans (51%) can only access water outside of their compound. More than one-third (36%) of surveyed communities have no infrastructure for piped water. More than two-thirds (68%) lack sewerage infrastructure. One in five citizens (20%) have to leave their compound to use a latrine, and almost one in 10 (8%) have no access at all to a latrine or toilet, even outside their compound. Rural residents have far less access to water and sanitation than their urban counterparts. North Africa outperforms other regions, while East Africa lags behind. Water supply ranks fifth among important problems that citizens say their governments must address. In Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Niger, it’s problem No. 1. A majority (55%) of African citizens rate their government’s handling of water supply as “fairly bad” or “very bad.” Across 18 countries tracked since 2005/2006, negative ratings have increased by 14 percentage points. Copyright © Afrobarometer 2016 2 Limited access to water and sanitation On average across 36 countries, almost half (45%) of respondents say they went without enough water for home use at least once during the previous year, including one in five (19%) who say they went without water “many times” or “always” (Figure 1). Almost three- fourths of citizens in Gabon (74%) and Liberia (72%) report going without enough water, compared to 8% in Mauritius and 15% in Cape Verde (Figure 2). Going without enough water “many times” or “always” affected more than one-third of citizens in Madagascar (42%), Gabon (39%), Guinea (38%), and Togo (37%). Do your own analysis of Afrobarometer data – on any 1 question, for any country and survey round. It’s easy and By region, Central Africa (55%) has the highest proportion of free at www.afrobarometer.org/online-data-analysis. respondents who say they went without enough water at least once, while North Africa has the lowest (33%). Rural residents are more likely than their urban counterparts to experience water scarcity, 50% vs. 39%. (Urban-rural and regional differences are summarized in Figure 16 and Figure 17 on Page 19.) Figure 1: How often went without enough water | 36 countries | 2014/2015 8% 11% Never Just once or twice Several times 15% 55% Many times Always 11% Respondents were asked: Over the past year, how often, if ever, have you or anyone in your family gone without enough clean water for home use? 1 Regional groupings are: North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia), Central Africa (Cameroon, Gabon, São Tomé and Principe), East Africa (Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda), West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo), Southern Africa (Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe). Copyright © Afrobarometer 2016 3 Figure 2: How often went without enough water | by country | 36 countries | 2014/2015 Madagascar 42% 17% 8% 34% Gabon 39% 26% 9% 26% Guinea 38% 20% 4% 38% Togo 37% 18% 6% 39% Côte d'Ivoire 32% 20% 10% 38% Burkina Faso 32% 20% 11% 37% Cameroon 30% 21% 11% 38% Liberia 27% 28% 17% 27% Niger 27% 15% 8% 49% Mozambique 27% 16% 21% 35% Sudan 24% 23% 13% 40% Benin 24% 22% 11% 44% Malawi 22% 13% 6% 60% Senegal 22% 20% 10% 48% Swaziland 21% 15% 11% 53% Lesotho 21% 15% 14% 50% Zimbabwe 21% 18% 17% 44% Average 19% 15% 11% 55% Tanzania 19% 16% 15% 50% Sierra Leone 19% 22% 7% 52% Burundi 19% 18% 7% 56% Zambia 16% 20% 11% 52% Botswana 16% 14% 15% 55% Mali 15% 10% 5% 70% São Tomé and Príncipe 14% 7% 9% 70% Uganda 13% 16% 14% 58% Kenya 12% 17% 13% 58% Tunisia 10% 7% 9% 74% Nigeria 10% 18% 16% 55% South Africa 9% 9% 13% 69% Ghana 8% 11% 7% 74% Algeria 6% 10% 12% 71% Morocco 6% 11% 11% 72% Namibia 6% 6% 13% 76% Egypt 5% 7% 12% 75% Cape Verde 4% 5% 6% 85% Mauritius 1%4% 3 % 92% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Always/ many times Several times Just once or twice Never Respondents were asked: Over the past year, how often, if ever, have you or anyone in your family gone without enough clean water for home use? Copyright © Afrobarometer 2016 4 Overall, the past decade has seen no improvement in the experience of water scarcity. Across 18 countries tracked by Afrobarometer surveys since 2005/2006,2 the average proportion of respondents who went without enough water increased marginally, from 40% to 43%. Six countries significantly reduced the proportion of citizens who went without water, led by Cape Verde (a 27-percentage-point drop) and Namibia (-25 points) (Figure 3, top).3 The proportions increased in four countries, most dramatically (by 43 percentage points) in Madagascar (Figure 3, bottom). Figure 3: Countries with reduced (top) and increased (bottom) proportions of the population going without water at least once | 2005-2015 70% 65% 60% 58% 52% 48% 50% 49% 48% 44% 47% Cape Verde 47% 45% 46% Namibia 40% 42% 42% 44% 36% 40% Zambia 35% 30% Kenya 25% Malawi 20% 15% Uganda 10% 0% 2005/2006 2008/2009 2011/2013 2014/2015 70% 66% 60% 55% 63% 54% 51% 52% 50% 49% 46% 38% 44% 45% Madagascar 40% Botswana 35% 37% 34% 30% 30% Mozambique 20% 23% Senegal 10% 0% 2005/2006 2008/2009 2011/2013 2014/2015 Respondents were asked: Over the past year, how often, if ever, have you or anyone in your family gone without enough clean water for home use? (% who went without water at least once in the preceding year) 2 The 18 countries are Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
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