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10 Facts About Sanitation in Gabon

Sanitation in GabonGabon, officially known as the Gabonese Republic, is a coastal country about the size of Colorado, home to 2.1 million people. Independent of French imperial rule for only 60 years, the country maintains strong ties to European and American markets. Gabon neighbors the Atlantic Ocean to its west and many rivers inland, from the Ogooue to the Ivindo. Despite its recent development, however, poverty and access to basic sanitation still plague about one-third of the population. Here are 10 facts about sanitation in Gabon: both the present and plans for the future.

10 Facts about Sanitation in Gabon

  1. The country is working toward providing clean water to all. Gabon’s first Libreville Integrated Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Program aims for universal access to sustainable forms for attaining drinking water and sanitation services by 2025. This program plans to expand the drinking water network out from the capital; by doing so, drinking water will reach about 300,000 more people in surrounding areas. The cities of Akanda, Owendo and Ntoum will all benefit from this infrastructure.
  2. Every home could soon have its own sanitation equipment. The use of shared sanitation in Gabon, or sanitation services utilized by two or more households, has significantly dropped from 36% of the population in 2003 to 27% in 2017. This is largely due to the increase in infrastructure for these services and outreach programs implemented by the government and international agencies.
  3. Defecating in public is uncommon, but back on the rise. Open defecation in Gabon is presently low, with 3% of the total population in 2017 compared to other countries like Niger (68%) and Ghana (18%). However, this figure actually shows an alarming increase from 2000, when a mere 1% of the population practiced open defecation.
  4. Disparities in access to water and sanitation are interconnected. In 2017, from the organized efforts of the WHO and UNICEF, it was reported that 90% of Gabon’s urban areas had access to drinking water but only 49% of households had access to basic sanitation services. In rural areas, availability drops significantly to 55% and 37%, respectively. Such disparities can be attributed to the lack of infrastructure and the wealth gap seen between the two areas.
  5. Education is helping to improve sanitation. Total Gabon and French organization Sensibilisation, Sante, Sexualite (3S) have been spearheading vital health programs in schools since 2017. These comprehensive programs aim to decrease the infant mortality rate and unsafe abortions. This will be done through education on sexual health, female hygiene and sanitation. As of 2017, over 40,000 people have learned the importance of family planning, contraception and pregnancy management. The program has also trained 42 young peer educators, who will become instrumental in further spreading valuable lessons on sanitation.
  6. Poor sanitation leaves Gabon’s citizens vulnerable to food and water-borne illnesses. According to a 2020 report from The World Factbook, people in Gabon are at a very high risk of food or waterborne diseases like bacterial diarrhea; however, deaths caused by diarrheal diseases have dropped by 22.8% from 2007 to 2017.
  7. Industrial pollution contributes to sanitation issues. In many underdeveloped countries, pollutants from excessive chemical use in agriculture and logging severely contaminate waterways. With Gabon’s robust timber industry, this phenomenon is especially apparent. Luckily, though, the country has dedicated one of its three pillars for a better future to environmental sustainability: “Green Gabon,” has diversified the job sector to reduce strain on the timber industry, lessening the amounts of air and water pollution byproducts. This translates into better conservation efforts, drinking water, disease and sanitation in Gabon.
  8. Drainage systems offer hope for improved sanitation. The Nzeng Ayong Watershed Management Project in Gabon incorporated a water drainage system in urban areas to improve sanitation in Gabon. As part of the National Indicative Program of the European Union, these drainage pipes and sanitation framework provided easy transport of wastewater. This helps prevent water-borne diseases and floods for 30,000 people in Libreville.
  9. COVID-19 is exacerbating current sanitation problems. Due to the global pandemic, many in Gabon are suffering a hard hit to their economy and the resulting unemployment. Nearly 250,000 additional people are now unable to pay their water bills, severely restricting access to drinking water. Gabon’s Budget Support Programme in Response to the COVID-19 Crisis not only intends to cover bills for those 250,000 people but also to distribute food aid to 60,000 people in its first phase alone.
  10. International aid organizations are getting involved. The World Bank and UNICEF have provided significant aid to Gabon. The World Bank has contributed $9 million to improve the country’s sanitation by supplying equipment like ambulances, personal protective equipment (PPE) and diagnostic kits. This money will also fund proper medical training and two new COVID-19 diagnostic centers. UNICEF has focused on supporting children in Gabon during COVID-19: the organization has funded sanitation kits, COVID-19 awareness campaigns, HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives and other educational efforts to 950 children without parental care. Mental and psychological resources have also been extended to 6,608 kids. Safe and accessible sexual abuse reporting systems have reached 811 people.

Universal sanitation and related basic needs are clearly part of an intricate web that entangles a host of other internal problems. With the rising influence of existing and emerging domestic and international programs, these investments will improve sanitation; this will ultimately move Gabon toward a healthier future.

– Mizla Shrestha
Photo: Flickr

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Why Water Quality in Serbia is Set to Improve

Water Quality in Serbia

Serbia is a small nation in Eastern Europe with a population of just over seven million, this is not including the population of the disputed Kosovo region. Since Serbia is a landlocked nation with no coastline, water pollution from industrial waste sites has a significantly negative impact on the country’s primary river, the Danube, and its primary tributary, the Sava, both of which serve as the largest and most important sources of drinking water for the nation.

Despite being a relatively well-developed European nation, what is the water quality in Serbia like?

According to the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR), Serbia actually depends on sources outside of its own national territory for water resources. This is particularly worrisome as most small communities in Serbia, with less than 2000 people, frequently lack wastewater management infrastructure and, because a number of existing facilities within Serbia are non-operational.
Additionally, assigning someone to monitor and secure good water quality in Serbia has become an issue in recent years.

The department of the United Nations responsible for assessing a country’s sanitation and drinking water situation (GLAAS) has stated that while the surveillance systems and institutions required to inspect water quality have been implemented in both urban and rural areas, specific plans to sustain and improve these systems and issues surrounding water system ownership are the main impediments to improving sanitation and water quality in Serbia.

So what can be done to protect water quality in Serbia, particularly in rural areas?

The Serbian government has already taken steps in recent years to ensure that the country’s inhabitants are not put at risk of illness through water consumption. In 2013, Serbia ratified the “Protocol on Water and Health to the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes” and will preside over it until 2019. This international legal agreement not only ensures sustainable water development and the eradication of water-borne diseases in Europe but is also supported by Serbia’s State Secretary at Health Ministry, Meho Mahmutović, who says that “we need to work together to achieve better environmental conditions in order to protect the health.”.

Despite being a rural level issue, the solution to the issue of water quality in Serbia will ultimately depend on government activity. By clearly defining political jurisdiction over the surveillance of drinking water sources and upholding the Protocol ratified by the Serbian government in 2013, communities outside of the country’s larger cities can live free from the risk of water-borne illnesses.

– Brad Tait

Photo: Pixabay

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The Quality of Fiji’s Water is Misrepresented

The Quality of Fiji's Water is Misrepresented by its Bottled Ambassador
The quality of Fiji’s water is drastically decreasing with the relentless presence of rotting pipes, inadequate wells and improper water treatment plants becoming more frequent.

Climate change continues to cause droughts in Rakiraki, Fiji. Throughout history, half the country has needed emergency water supplies of at least four gallons a week per family. Dirty water has led to outbreaks of typhoid and parasitic infections.

Fijian hospital patients have reported fetching their own water, and children have found shells, leaves and frogs in their school’s pipes. People resorted to breaking into fire hydrants and manipulating water truck drivers just to get a regular supply, according to Mother Jones.

Children die from a waterborne disease every minute. There are 750 million people worldwide without access to clean water. In 2014, the Water Authority of Fiji gave its allegiance to the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals, aiming to complete 60 percent of its protocol.

However, the quality of Fiji’s water is under scrutiny by international experts across the African Continent because they are below the average sanitation levels, even though the Fiji Water company claims it helped roughly 40,000 people get clean drinking water access. Warwick Pleass, the rotary pacific water chairman, tested the quality of Fiji’s water and found it is worse than Uganda in Africa.

Fiji Water, established in 1995, brought business to the impoverished country, but also benefits from tax exemptions. While co-founder David Gilmour stated in 2003 that he wanted Fiji Water “to become the biggest taxpayer in the country,” the tax break scheduled to end in 2008 has not yet expired.

When the Fijian government tried to impose a tax on the company in 2008, Fiji Water protested by temporarily shutting down the plant, describing the taxes as draconian. While the Fiji Water company is featured at the hands of celebrities and politicians in full-page ads, the country of Fiji is riddled with faulty water supplies and plagued by typhoid outbreaks.

Among the volcanic foothills with metal shacks and wooden homes, the Fiji Water factory is located in the Yagara Valley, immersed in cow pastures and swaying palm trees. Chickens roam through these vibrant houses and at the feet of market locals. A sweet smell of burning sugar cane fills the air, according to Mother Jones Reporter Anna Lenzer.

Only half an hour from the bottling plant is the small town Rakiraki, riddled with dusty marketplace shops. A sign advertises a “Coffin Box for Sale – Cheapest in Town.”

Even though Lenzer’s destination guide claims the quality of Fiji’s water is unfit for human consumption, Fiji Water bottles line grocery store aisles for 90 cents a pint, roughly the same as U.S. market sale prices.

– Rachel Williams

Photo: Flickr