Africa: Tapping into the Sanitation Challenge

In my last blog post , I concluded by recognising the need to bring attention and solutions to 'The Unmentionable', which is severely hindering sanitary improvement. Undoubtedly, there is no better day to fulfill that attention component than today, which is, of course, World Toilet Day (WTD) !!!!  Recognising the importance of this, I have utilised information found across the UN’s WTD website  to create 2 key resources that I hope will be of use, including: A QUIZ - which I’ve created from the website’s fact page. It’s quick, thought provoking and challenging, testing your knowledge and showcasing why the WTD campaign is so crucial!! An EDUCATIONAL TEMPLATE that I’ve developed to be used by teachers and professors in their classrooms and seminars. It aims to prompt students into learning more about the WTD’s themes and objectives, giving them impetus to explore the stories that underpin the campaign. There are 4 sections and model answers at the end. I hope you enjoy!! Wit

In the second post of my blog, I considered the broad theme of sanitation hardware. Specifically I focused on how Ecosan's holistic framework of functionality could serve to evolve African sanitation practices. By the end of the post, I undoubtedly felt optimistic about how transformative Ecosan could be in Africa. However, a key question concerning the openness of community needs remained unanswered. This led me to consider 'The Unmentionable' theme identified in my introductory post , and forced me to ask - "why was sanitation implementation failing with such flexible sanitary frameworks?". The subsequent intrigue led me to write this post concerning sanitation ‘software’. Here, I contextualise how socio-cultural factors have contributed to sanitary resistance, and how such ‘glitches’ are seen through the Akan people of Ghana. By doing so, I introduce two important questions that I hope will fuel subsequent posts! What’s contributing to sanitation failures in