Worldwide, billions of people lack access to basic sanitation facilities – and to this day, sub-Saharan Africa remains the main focus of concern. The UN Monitoring System states that only 37% of people living in sub-Saharan Africa had access to basic sanitation in 2004, compared to a global average of 59%. Somewhere in the world, every fifteen seconds a child dies of diarrhoea, a total of two million children a year. At least 2.6 billion people still have no access to sustainable, basic sanitation worldwide. Moreover, these problems are likely to increase in sub-Saharan Africa since the process of urbanisation is moving at a rate that excedes the ability of most governments to expand infrastructure and social benefits. Even though these facts are well known amongst experts, sanitation has still not risen to the top of the political agenda.

The sanitation situation is particularly critical among the urban poor and the region is likely to miss the MDG target of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to basic sanitation by 2015 – unless awareness can be raised dramatically and investment increased between now and 2015. The urgent need to accelerate access to sanitation is more than obvious.

Many of the MDGs are not achievable without sustainable sanitation and hygiene education. Recognising the impact of sanitation on public health, poverty reduction, environment and economic and social development, the General Assembly of the United Nations (GA) has declared 2008 an “International Year of Sanitation” (IYS) in order to raise awareness of the importance of sanitation. The GA has expressed its concern at the slow and inadequate progress made in achieving global sanitation targets, and stated that progress should be made through active commitment and action by all stakeholders.