« Sanitation for a better quality of life » is ONAS’s motto and, in conjunction with public authorities, technical and financial partners and all sector stakeholders, we hope to make it a reality to the benefit of the people. Given a context of strong demographic growth, prioritization of on-site sanitation is vital to improving living conditions. It must be realized that access to an adequate sanitation system is a basic human right, no less than the right to education or the right to health. Failure to properly take account of sanitation issues is a major obstacle to economic, health and social development. If half of the funds allocated to collective sanitation had been channeled instead to on-site sanitation, Senegal, like many African countries, would have largely exceeded the Sustainable Development Goals pertaining to sanitation.
In 2011, Senegal set up a specific pilot program on fecal sludge management to better address the on-site sanitation value chain in the urban environment.
Seven years later, ONAS is preparing to consecrate the scaling up of the project with increased private sector involvement and the ambition of making on-site sanitation one of the key pillars for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including point 6.2, which is: by 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.
Mr Lansana Gagny SAKHO, ONAS Managing Director