10,000 sanitation projects across Africa, by 2035.
Sanitopia CIC has set out its long-term target: 10,000 modern sanitation projects across the continent within a decade, with more than 2,000 of them in Ghana.
Sanitopia CIC, a UK registered Community Interest Company founded by Ghanaian lawyer, entrepreneur, author and philanthropist Richard Kojo Acheampong, has set a target of delivering 10,000 modern sanitation projects across Africa by 2035.
The organisation's stated mission is to make access to clean and safe sanitation a basic right for every child, addressing the health, gender equality and educational barriers that inadequate facilities create.
Why sanitation, and why now
The objectives are specific: improve access to safe and sustainable hygiene services in underserved communities, reduce the disease outbreaks linked to poor sanitation, and provide private, adequate washroom facilities so that girls can stay in school.
Roughly 4.2 billion people worldwide still lack access to safely managed sanitation. In Ghana, close to 80 percent of households lack a basic toilet facility.
How we work
Sanitopia operates on a community-centred model built around transparency, accountability and local participation throughout the lifecycle of each project, so that facilities are owned and maintained by the communities that use them rather than abandoned once the builders leave.
The approach rests on three pillars: community-centred sanitation facilities, waste-to-value innovation that turns human waste into biogas and fertiliser, and capacity building through partnerships.
Aligned to three global goals
The programme is built around three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Where we have started
Sanitopia currently operates in Ghana, with plans to expand across the continent. Completed work includes a 12-seater toilet facility with refurbished washrooms and a roofed walkway connecting to a 25-unit bathroom block at Nkonya Senior High School in the Oti Region, a 12-unit facility at Asikuma in the Eastern Region, and a 12-seater WASH facility at the George Padmore Research Library in Accra.
10,000 is a lot of partners.
Government, corporate organisations, development partners and philanthropists all have a part in this.