Even though it is struggling to control a cholera outbreak, a new UNICEF/WHO report showed Algeria leads Africa in drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services.
Algeria has emerged the leader in Africa in the provision of drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services in schools, according to a new joint report by the UNICEF/WHO Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Santiation and Hygiene (JMP).
This report is coming at a time that the country is struggling to put a cholera outbreak under control that the government said arose as a result of the contamination is linked to food and improper hygiene.
healthnews.africa analysed the data released by the report and it revealed that in the North African country, 93% of all the schools have drinking water for students – 98% in secondary schools while in primary schools, students in 83% of schools nationwide can access drinking water.
This estimate is the highest in Africa and is higher than the 74% average coverage for North Africa and the world’s estimate of 69%.
The data for sanitation services was better with 100% of secondary schools in Algeria providing basic sanitation exercise against the global estimate of 66% and a regional estimate of 82%.
Furthermore, almost all schools in the country also offered basic hygiene services. Algeria’s neighboring countries also had significantly high proportion of schools with safe drinking water services.
In Tunisia, 70% of schools had basic drinking water services while in Morocco the figure is 80%.
While data is not available for all African countries, Algeria outperformed countries on the continent where data is available including South Africa where only 78% of schools had basic drinking water services.
Other African countries listed include Namibia (76%), Zimbabwe (63%), Zambia (79%), Uganda (69%), Burundi (42%), Central African Republic (16%), Rwanda (44%), Cameroon (34%), Chad (23%), Burkina Faso (53%), Guinea (10%), Liberia (42%), Sierra Leone (62%), Senegal (32%).
The 2030 Agenda established ambitious SDG targets, which aim, among other things, for universal access to WASH for all and safe, inclusive and effective learning environments for all. It further calls for systematic attention to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in the implementation of the new Agenda.
UNICEF and WHO noted that achieving universal access to basic WASH services in schools by 2030 presents a huge challenge.
“In many countries it will not only imply building and upgrading WASH facilities in schools but also strengthening Education Information Management Systems so they go beyond simply recording the availability of WASH infrastructure to take account of the quality of WASH services provided for students and staff,” the report stated.
2016 baseline estimates for basic water, sanitation and hygiene services were only available for 92, 101 and 81 countries respectively. Furthermore only 68 countries were able to generate national coverage estimates for all three types of basic WASH service in schools.
Algeria’s cholera outbreak
A total of 41 cases have been confirmed in the country’s capital city of Algiers and its surrounding areas as announced by the country’s health minister in a press conference on August 23.
The minister said the contamination is linked to food and improper hygiene while ruling out transmission by tap water.
France24 reported the authorities’ delay in revealing the cause of the hospitalisation of dozens of people since the beginning of the week has provoked a public outcry. The health minister, who at first spoke of 88 cases of food poisoning, was accused of negligence.
“In a press conference on August 20, authorities confirmed that these were cases of gastroenteritis,” said Leila Beratto, correspondent for FRANCE 24’s sister station RFI in Algeria.
“Late last week, when five more people were hospitalised, people were talking about water contamination. On August 23, when a man died, the official story was still food poisoning even though a special ward had been created to isolate the patients.”
The government announced the cases were “isolated and limited to a few families” and that the situation is under control. Several doctors confirmed that suspected cases of cholera were flagged a week ago. A doctor of infectious diseases tweeted, “The infectious diseases department at Boufarik [30km southwest of Algiers] received confirmation of cholera cases six days ago. […] The alert was given but the ministry didn’t move. It’s very serious.”
The same health professional described how “doctors who suspected two cases at Ain Bessem [in southeast Algiers] treated the patients as if they had cholera, and took the samples and sent them to the Pasteur Institute in Algeria. But it’s not up to the doctors to make the declaration, it’s up to the [health] ministry.”
The controversy has grown to encompass the state of public health and development in the country, as the ministry has tried to downplay the scale of the problem. The director of the Pasteur Institute in Algeria declared that, “Cholera outbreaks have occurred in Chad, in Niger, in Yemen… not just in Algeria,” and congratulated himself for being able to provide exact numbers of people infected.
But the government is optimistic about ending the outbreak quickly. The health ministry promised the disease will be put under control by August 31st. Minister of Health, Population and Hospital Reform Mokhtar Hasbellaoui assured residents of the country that the ministry would do all in power to eliminate cholera before the start of the new school year.
Public health issues
The minister estimated the total number of suspected cases which arrived at hospitals at 147 from five provinces. Laboratory tests confirmed the infection of only 49 cases, he said.
Hasbellaoui added that the ministry had conducted examinations for samples from 38 water sources across the country to discover the source of the infection.
The ministry confirmed the death of two citizens in the Blida province. It said that the highest number of cholera-affected cases was recorded in the province. Other cases were found in the capital Algiers and the provinces of Tipaza and Bouira.
The Ministry of Health identified the source of the disease as water reservoir located west of Algiers, specifically in the village of Sidi el-Kebir. Local authorities closed the reservoir as a precautionary measure pending the necessary analysis.
However, local residents disputed claim, pointing out that they have been consuming water from it for decades without falling ill.
The Ministry of Health issued a statement recommending that citizens follow hygiene measures, namely “washing their hands thoroughly, rinsing fruits and vegetables before consumption and refraining from visiting cholera patients in hospitals.”