Impact of global initiatives on drinking water access in Africa

In a quest to achieve a sustainable supply of drinking water, most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have adopted water supply models designed to meet targets set by continually changing global water initiatives (GWI). Consequently, strategies to deliver these GWI concomitantly changed after dominating water policy implementation at a particular time. The review observes that these changes often overlooked contextual setting and undermined smooth continuity from one initiative to another. The poor link between initiatives, therefore, allowed the factors responsible for poor access to persist. To that end, the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade initiative (1981-1990) did not meet the target of 'water for all'. Similarly, the International Water for Life Decade (2005-2015) failed to reduce by 50% the number of people without access as anticipated.