Giving Compass' Take:

· Neil Jeffery identifies five myths that have prevented expanded access to clean water and sanitation to citizens living in urban areas around the world.

· How can donors support better access to water and sanitation everywhere? What role can you play in advancing partnerships to that end? 

· Read more about how we can make water and sanitation more accessible.

What does it mean to give one person access to clean water or safe sanitation? For them and their family, it means the world: dignity, health, more time to work, study, or care for others.

Take Alice Timane, who lives in Maputo, Mozambique, whose toilet used to be a shallow hole lined with car tires. It was dangerous and undignified. It frequently overflowed in the rainy season. Now, her community has new facilities and she knows that her family won’t have to put their lives at risk every time they go to the toilet.

But what does it mean for 20 million people to have access?

Since our inception in 2005, Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor and our partners have helped 20 million people gain access to clean water, safe sanitation, or improved hygiene.

Through partnership with municipal authorities, utilities, over a hundred businesses, micro-enterprises, regulators, and many other institutions, WSUP has improved critical services. These are not just one-off interventions, but long-term improvements which give 20 million people clean water and toilets – today, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future.

Skoll Foundation staff member Rachel Flynn recently visited two WSUP sites in Nairobi, Kenya. “We met and spent time not just with the people directly benefiting from WSUP’s interventions, but also with representatives from so many of their partners – local leaders, Nairobi Water workers, and researchers.” Flynn said.  “I saw how WSUP improves lives directly and immediately, and also builds long-term capacity to maintain these improvements for good.” But so much more could, and needs, to be done.

Read the full article about water and sanitation by Neil Jeffery at the Skoll Foundation.