HIV/AIDS Millennium Development Goal: HIV/AIDS and Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene in Southern Africa

Summary:
The socio-economic impacts of HIV and AIDS are not often highlighted, even though their effects are not limited to those diagnosed: water and sanitation sectors often pay little attention to the impact of HIV/AIDS on the social and economic feasibility and sustainability of water supply in rural areas; increasing HIV/AIDS cases in rural areas make already inadequate water and sanitation situations for domestic and agricultural use dire; and home-based care for the terminally ill requires not only clean water and safe solid waste disposal for patients, but access to a convenient, reliable, safe, and sufficient water supply, as well as basic sanitation, to ease the burden on caregivers. Strategies to integrate water and sanitation with HIV/AIDS are necessary and must meet the challenge to ensure all development sectors incorporate, in a strategic way, issues such as prevention, care, and mitigation of HIV/AIDS, and policymakers and sector programs give high priority to water supply, sanitation, and hygiene promotion in areas with a high incidence of the disease.