The provision of sustainable sanitation for all is one of the world’s most important development priorities, yet 4.5 billion people lack access to a safe toilet. Past efforts to provide greater sanitation access, such as direct government provision and full, blanket subsidies for toilets, have proven to be ineffective or unsustainable in many developing countries, prompting some to focus on market-based sanitation (MBS) as an alternative. However, market-based approaches have proven difficult to scale up.  

“The changes on the African continent are very much alarming—when we talk of sanitation and look at the growth of the populations in Africa, and also the urbanization phenomenon, with the growth of slums,” said Dr. Canisius Kanangire, Executive Secretary of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), acknowledging the challenges facing the region in a recent interview with USAID’s Global Waters Radio.

More than 3,000 practitioners and decision-makers gathered in Stockholm, Sweden, at the end of August 2018 for World Water Week. Hosted by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), this annual gathering encourages new thinking and positive action on water-related opportunities and challenges. 

Around the world, pollution and disease contaminate essential supplies of drinking water. In the third event of the Woodrow Wilson Center's “Sustainable Water, Resilient Communities” series, experts discussed approaches to meeting the challenges of poor water quality: improving sanitation and hygiene, addressing agricultural pollution, and increasing water supplies through wastewater reuse. The series is organized by the Environmental Change and Security Program. Eric Viala, director of USAID's Sustainable Water Partnership, moderated the discussion.