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Sustainable Water Infrastructure: Visions and Options for Sub-Saharan Africa
Summary
This review assesses the challenges facing water infrastructure sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa, including aging systems, limited resources, and environmental pressures. Researchers evaluated global interventions and assessed their relevance to the African context using a framework that considers societal, technological, economic, environmental, and political dimensions. The study recommends an expanded analytical approach to develop more resilient and sustainable water systems for the region.
Developing a sustainable water infrastructure entails the planning and management of water systems to ensure the availability, access, quality, and affordability of water resources in the face of social, environmental, and economic challenges. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is currently in an era where it must make significant changes to improve the sustainability of its water infrastructure. This paper reviews the factors affecting water infrastructure sustainability and the interventions taken globally to address these challenges. In parallel, it reflects on the relevance of these interventions to the context of Sub-Saharan Africa through the lens of the STEEP (societal, technological, economic, environmental, political) framework. The paper goes on to recommend an extended analysis that captures additional critical dimensions when applying the concept of sustainability. Furthermore, this paper sheds light on the practice of sustainable development and fosters a deeper understanding of the issues, thereby forming the basis for further research and the development of sustainable and resilient solutions for water infrastructure and water asset management more generally.
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