Sustainability of Water Safety Plans Developed in Sub-Saharan Africa

In developing countries, the drinking water supply is still an open issue. In
sub-Saharan Africa, only 68% of the population has access to improved sources of
drinking water. Moreover, some regions are affected by geogenic contaminants (e.g.,
fluoride and arsenic) and the lack of access to sanitation facilities and hygiene practices
causes high microbiological contamination of drinking water in the supply chain. The
Water Safety Plan (WSP) approach introduced by the World Health Organisation (WHO)
in 2004 is now under development in several developing countries in order to face up to
these issues. The WSP approach was elaborated within two cooperation projects
implemented in rural areas of Burkina Faso and Senegal by two Italian NGOs
(Non-Governmental Organisations). In order to evaluate its sustainability, a questionnaire
based on five different sustainability elements and a cost and time consumption evaluation
were carried out and applied in both the case studies. Results demonstrated that the
questionnaire can provide a useful and interesting overview regarding the sustainability of
the WSP; however, further surveys in the field are recommended for gathering more
information. Time and costs related to the WSP elaboration, implementation, and
management were demonstrated not to be negligible and above all strongly dependent on
water quality and the water supply system complexity.