African innovators to improve access to quality water, sanitation and hygieneRead more ...

“Today’s announcement represents a tremendous milestone in contributing to efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6,” said Dr Moses Alobo who is Programme Manager for Grand Challenges Africa, a programme of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), under which the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) scheme falls.

The seven were selected from a competitive pool of 166 applicants from across the continent to improve or strengthen the quality, accessibility, delivery, distribution, and awareness of water, sanitation and hygiene.

SDG 6 seeks to change the status quo where billions of people globally living in densely populated informal and/or low-income urban settlements lack adequate sanitation. 4.5 billion lack access to sanitation altogether, with as many as one billion people worldwide defecating in the open or sharing public toilets and water sources, and an additional three billion using toilets from which the waste is not safely managed – meaning that either it is not safely contained or, once emptied, is not safely treated. Over 60% of the human waste that is collected in the developing world is discharged untreated into the environment. 
 

This award represents a partnership between BMGF,  Arm, UNICEF,  and The AAS,  and is funded in partnership with Sida.

The innovations will reduce gender-based violence in areas where access to toilets has been communal and left women and children vulnerable to violence and abuse; streamline waste collection; and monitor water use and quality to deliver efficient and accurate billing services in urban areas.

The WASH funding will also enable grantees to evaluate sanitation infrastructure and assess the level of service deliveries across urban contexts and map trends in real-time.