afri
alliance
social
innovation
Monitoring«drinkingwater »
quality for improvedhealth
inAfrica
The overall objective of the AfriAlliance Social Inno-
vation Factsheets (SIF)
is to highlight innovation oppor-
tunities that scientists, NGOs, managers and SMEs can
act upon, in order to foster short-term improvements in
the preparedness of African stakeholders for water and
climate change challenges.
Over the duration of AfriAlliance (2016-2021), four
setsof SIFswill bedelivered.
Each setwill cover onemain
theme and explore it across five Social Innovation Fact-
sheets.Monitoring is themain theme of this first series of
SIFs, covering the following five sub-themes:
Monitoring«drinkingwater »quality for improved
health inAfrica (thisSIF).
Monitoring of water availability in terms of quality
and quantity for food security.
Monitoring climate for early warning systems to
prepare for extremeweather events.
Monitoringgroundwater quantity toensuresustai-
nable use and avoidwater conflicts.
Monitoringwaterpollutionby industriesandurban
areas to protect human health and ecosystems.
As detailed below,
social innovation combines four
dimensions: technological, governance, capacity develop-
ment and business roadmap. Each is described in a spe-
cific section of this thematicSocial Innovation Factsheet.
DESCRIPTION
Access to safe and cleandrinking-water
is a basic human right, as declared
during the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 2010. Moreover, an in-
dicator and target on safe drinking-water was included in the UN Sustainable
Development Goals, in 2015.
Climate change is recognised to
have “both direct and indirect impact
on human health” (ClimDev-Africa,
2013; UNECA, 2011).
This social in-
novation factsheet focuses on the link
between climate (change) impact and
water availability that endangerspopu-
lation health as “many of Africa’s cur-
rent healthproblemsarea result of fre-
quent contactwithcontaminatedwater
and open sewerage” (ClimDev-Africa,
2013; UNECA, 2011). Outbreaks of diseases transmittedbywater have amajor
impact on human health through diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis
A andmany types of diarrhoea.Water qualitymonitoring is as amajor concern
for society. In termsofwater qualityand its related impactsonhealth, twomain
sources of pollution can be distinguished: chemical and (micro)biological. As
thechemical source isgenerallychronicandof long term impact (except for ac-
cidental pollution), monitoring themicrobiological quality of water is of higher
priority.
The quality of water depending on the living area - urban or rural -
varies
a lot according to its source (rainwater, surface water or groundwater) as the
water supplies’ treat-ment cost. Generally, groundwater sources are of better
quality andmay only require source protection and disinfection, whereas sur-
facewater is often contaminated and requires treatment before use.
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SOCIETALCHALLENGES
INAFRICADUE TOCLIMATCHANGE
•Given themanifesta-
tionsof ClimateChange
and theconstraintsof
ecosystemsaswell as
socio-economicsystems,
thesocietal challenges in
Africaare to:
–ensure foodsecurity,
water securityandenergy
securityand thebalance
among them (short term),
– transform intoa low
carbon, resilient and
sustainablesociety (long
term).
SOCIAL INNOVATION
• InAfriAlliance, social innovationmeans tackling
societal, water-related challenges arising from
ClimateChange by combining the technological &
non-technological dimensions of innovation.
• Social innovation refers to those processes and
outcomes focussedon addressing societal goals,
unsatisfied collective needs or societal – as op-
posed tomere economic – returns. It is particularly
salient in the context of the complex and cross-cut-
ting challenges that need to be addressed in the
field of water andClimateChange – andwhichwill
not bemet by relying onmarket signals alone.
• Social innovation consists of new combinations
(or hybrids of existing and new) products, pro-
cesses and services. In order to succeed, social
innovation needs topay attention to technological
aswell as non-technological dimensions :
1) tech-
nology, 2) capacity development, 3) governance
structures and 4) business roadmap.
As such,
these four dimensions of the social innovation
process cut across organisational, sectoral and
disciplinary boundaries and imply new patterns of
stakeholder involvement and learning.
• The success of social innovation is reliant on the
accountability of diverse stakeholders and across
all government levels.
Social
Innovation
Factsheet
#1
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MONITORING
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