WSUP’s 2021-2022 Annual Report has been launched, showing how our organisation’s work in Southern Africa and Asia has advanced even more, with different initiatives in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in low-income urban areas.
It was a particularly important year for WSUP’s activities promoting good WASH services for women and girls. Another highlight was its work about the importance of climate adaptation initiatives, in order to protect essential WASH infrastructure and resources on which low-income communities solely depend.
In the period, WSUP launched its climate change report, The missing link in climate adaptation: How improved access to water and sanitation is helping cities adapt to climate change, which shows how the human-driven changes in the planet’s climate have been affecting both the provision of water and sanitation systems.
The expressive numbers from the 2021-2022 period speak of the impact of activities, mainly in seven countries, that covered a wide range of aspects of people’s lives, from the water children consume at school to the health and safety of female residents using a communal toilet. The report also reflects the work WSUP has been doing in improving long-term prospects of water and sanitation services by strengthening local utilities, through training and better operational systems.
Overall, the 12-month period covered by the 2021-2022 Annual Report recorded many achievements for WSUP, including:
618,418 people with improved water access;
580,730 residents with improved sanitation services;
168,454 people with improved access to good hygiene;
and more than $12 million in additional investment.
In the report, Lord Paul Boateng, WSUP’s chairman, highlighted WSUP’s work in schools, helping secure the future of the communities we serve. “In addition to our work with households and families, we are also investing more and more in providing clean water and decent toilets in schools, helping reduce student absences and improving the educational chances for children, particularly girls.”
Ed Mitchell, who in 2022 assumed the position of WSUP’s CEO, highlighted the need for WSUP to be even more ambitious in the years to come, considering the size of the challenge in water and sanitation. “Together with our supportive partners, we can take pride in what we’ve done so far, but we also need to raise our sights and ambitions to reach many more people in desperate need.”
Read the 2021-2022 Annual Report
Click here for the 2020-2021 Annual Report.
Top image: Sophey Akoya Njeche, resident of Mukuru, in Kenya.