Whether it is the management of liquid and solid waste, the promotion of hygiene, the evacuation of rainwater, the management of special waste or the reduction of air pollution, sanitation in all its dimensions is a fundamental aspect of the social, economic and health well-being of populations.

This fundamental character was recently recognized by the United Nations General Assembly, which declared that the right to sanitation was one of the fundamental rights of the human being. Despite this, the progress made and investments in this area are very insufficient to hope to achieve the Millennium Goals set in Johannesburg in 2002 and reaffirmed at the AfricaSan conferences held in eThekwini (2008) and Kigali (2011) or at the high-level meeting organized in Washington in the framework of the “Sanitation and Water for All” initiative (2012).

This lack of progress is noted at the international level but also at the level of Burundi. Today, in our country, the sanitation situation is worrying and the lack of progress in this area is alarming. The lack of adequate sanitation and poor hygiene conditions constitute a health, ecological and economic disaster: the impact on the natural environment and on human health amounts to thousands of sick people and deaths; millions of working days are lost every year. Finally, poor sanitation is an obstacle to the competitiveness of our economy and a major obstacle to the development of external investment, particularly in the tourism sector.

A recent World Bank report estimated the losses associated with inadequate sanitation at more than 30 billion Burundian francs per year. To provide a response that is commensurate with the challenges faced by the sanitation sector, the Ministry of Water, Environment, Land Use and Urban Development (MEEATU), with the support of all partners in the sector, has developed this National Sanitation Policy (PNA) and the Action Plans for its implementation.

The PNA defines a clear vision that can mobilize all actors, bring coherence to actions that have hitherto been limited or disparate and increase the level of political priority given to sanitation.