Strategic Momentum Towards SDG 6
In Brazzaville this week, the Ministry of Urban Sanitation, Local Development and Road Maintenance convenes what observers describe as a decisive forum: the first national validation workshop for the National Sanitation Policy 2026-2030. The gathering, organised in partnership with UNICEF, is presented as the operational translation of pledges made during the inaugural National Conference on Urban Sanitation. By anchoring the new framework in the Sustainable Development Goal 6—universal access to water and sanitation—Congolese authorities signal their commitment to a global agenda that views hygiene not merely as a social good, but as a cornerstone of economic productivity and public health.
A Consultative Pathway Shaped in Brazzaville
Under the patronage of Minister Juste Désiré Mondelé, the workshop brings together municipal executives, civil-society organisations, engineers, academics and development partners. The objective is explicit: to submit the policy draft to a rigorous, collective reading before it is tabled at the Council of Ministers. According to the organising committee, more than eighty contributions—from provincial health bureaus to market-women associations—have already been integrated into the working document. UNICEF’s water and sanitation lead in Congo, Eliane Koumba, stresses that “the value of the exercise lies in synthesising local knowledge with international standards, an approach that tends to foster ownership and sustainability”.
Urbanisation Pressures and Environmental Stakes
Congo’s urban population grows at an estimated 3.9 percent per year, a dynamic that stretches drainage, waste-collection and wastewater-treatment systems. The capital’s peri-urban districts illustrate the challenge: informal settlements expand faster than service grids, leading to open defecation and high faecal contamination of shallow wells. Public-health data compiled by the Ministry of Health indicate that one in five recorded diarrhoeal episodes in 2022 was linked to inadequate sanitation infrastructure. Climate factors compound the problem; heavier rainy seasons induce flash floods and, in undrained neighbourhoods, accelerate soil erosion—both of which undermine roads and dwellings.
Institutional and Financial Architecture
The forthcoming policy seeks to clarify the division of labour between national directorates, municipalities and traditional authorities, while introducing performance indicators that can be audited annually. Draft provisions foresee the establishment of a National Sanitation Fund, designed to pool state allocations, concessional loans from regional lenders and targeted levies on polluting industrial effluents. Officials point to the 2019 Water Code, which already earmarks dedicated budget lines, as a legal anchor for the new mechanism. A pooled fund, they argue, can unlock co-financing with partners such as the African Development Bank, a method that spared the treasury more than two billion CFA francs in a recent drinking-water project in Sibiti.
Key Takeaways
Participants agree that the policy’s novelty lies in its multisectoral reach. Education ministries are requested to embed hygiene modules in school curricula, while housing agencies must incorporate septic-tank designs into building permits. Private sanitation entrepreneurs, who currently operate in a regulatory vacuum, will benefit from licensing guidelines that formalise tariffs and quality benchmarks. The document also emphasises gender: women, who shoulder a disproportionate share of household water management, will be represented in local monitoring committees.
Legal and Economic Overview
From a legal perspective, the policy will complement existing statutes—the 2018 Environmental Protection Act and the 2021 Decentralisation Code—by supplying enforceable norms for waste-water disposal and sludge management. Lawyers involved in the drafting process underline the importance of presumption of compliance, a clause that shields compliant operators from arbitrary inspections. Economists calculate that every dollar invested in sanitation yields a return of up to 5 dollars through increased labour productivity and reduced medical expenditure, a ratio corroborated by World Bank regional studies. If the proposed budget envelope of 120 billion CFA francs over four years is maintained, Congo could recoup nearly 600 billion francs in broader economic gains, supporting the national objective of diversifying growth beyond hydrocarbons.
Next Steps on the Roadmap
Once validated, the policy will be finalised by an inter-ministerial technical committee before its submission to the government by the end of the first quarter of 2024. Implementation guidelines, including a phased urban-rural roll-out and capacity-building programmes for municipal technicians, are scheduled for publication shortly afterwards. Minister Mondelé, speaking on the sidelines of the workshop, affirmed that “the policy is not an end in itself but the beginning of a culture of accountability in sanitation governance”. Development partners echo that sentiment, hinting at scheduled mid-term reviews to keep the initiative on track and adaptive to emerging climate realities.