Appropriate Sanitation Technology for the Decade in Africa

Abstract

THE INTERNATIONAL Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, launched by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 November 1980, had been based on the severe findings of the Global Survey on Water Supply and waste water Disposal, carried out by the World Health Organisa tion during 1970-80. These findings revealed that only one out of four rural people living in the developing countries had safe drinking water, and only one out of five had proper sanitation facilities. The U.N. Decade has been launched with the goal of providing "Clean Water and Adequate Sanitation for All by 1990".

In order to achieve this goal, of one of the most ambitious U.N. programmes (estimated cost — $300 billion), the involved activities must be based on 4 major principles: The two components of the program me — water supply and sanitation — must be mutually and simultaneously developed; this development has to be carried out according to appropriate technology practices and mass-production techniques; the emph asis must be laid on the rural areas; adequate health education has to be included in all stages of the programme, namely, planning, design, construction, maintenance and surveillance.