Sanitation governance: scaling up initiatives in Senegal

Senegal is lagging behind in the provision of quality sanitation services, with an average of 71.7% in urban areas and 52.6% in rural areas, and has high hopes for the success of the new Sanitation Sub-Sector Governance Improvement Project (SanGov), implemented since 13 June 2024 by the Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the tune of $18 million.

“Access to safe sanitation services is essential for everyone, but it also helps to solve problems linked to the environment, health and human dignity. Even today, 12% of Senegalese people defecate in the open air”, said Cheikh Tidiane Diéye, Senegal’s Minister of Water and Sanitation, at the launch of SanGov.

Scaling up grassroots initiatives

In addition to open defecation, other challenges include the lack of appropriate sanitation systems and ineffective sanitation policies. The SanGov aims to respond to these challenges through a series of strategic initiatives, including improving the legal framework by implementing a pilot phase of sanitation policing and revising legislation, strengthening performance monitoring by introducing management and service quality monitoring tools, coordinating stakeholders by restructuring and decentralising the framework for consultation and exchange between stakeholders in the sanitation sub-sector (CCEA), and building capacity by training sanitation stakeholders.

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Senegal’s Minister of Water and Sanitation, Cheikh Tidiane Diéye, stressed the importance of rigorous monitoring and the mobilisation of all stakeholders. The Senegalese community was invited to innovate further in support of the government’s efforts to guarantee access to quality sanitation services for all its people by 2030.

Inès Magoum