The youth in water and sanitation in Africa say they have taken on a challenge to use social media to educate people on water related issues such as production, treatment, distribution, storage and wastage.

This pledge comes as stakeholders find alternate innovative means of meeting Goal 6 of the SDGs-Ensure access to water and sanitation for all.

Speakers at a forum for young professionals in the water sector at the African Water and Sanitation Conference in Abidjan, though excited about the news, tasked the youth to advance their knowledge on the subject by studying courses related to the water sector to enable them share accurate information.

They believe the use of social media can also be hinged on quality training, sustaining implementation of new smart technologies, creation of mobile applications, use of geo-radar systems and drones for instance in the management of alerts on violations on water pipes.

According to the “We Are Social” Digital yearbook, there are more than 2.3 billion active social media users. 93% of this number, representing 14 to 22 year olds, is in the youth age bracket as a 2018 study by Hopelab and Well Being Trust found that the age range between 14-22 use social media, almost daily.

With this in mind, Lathro Meless Yves who is the Head of Assets and Monitoring Services at the Cote d’Ivoire office of National Drinking Water (ONEP), expressed hope that if the youth leverages on social media to convey their message, issues of water and sanitation would be better understood, especially by persons in their age bracket.

Addressing the forum, Mr. Yves observed, ‘Social media can be used to raise awareness to sensitize people. Let’s take water wastage for instance. If you go to the universities where research has shown a 60 percent wastage of water, the youth can by themselves resort to using social media platforms as an avenue to raise awareness about the dangers of continuously wasting treated water and provide solutions.

This can be done through their WhatsApp platforms, and educative videos on Tit-tok, streaks on Snapchat and picture cards on twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn for example.

Mr. Yves also mentioned how artificial intelligence (AI) can be instrumental in this agenda. He noted that ‘in terms of geo-location of an area or a network, AI can be deployed to locate the exact spot where the problem of either leakage or need for maintenance is, so that it can be easily spotted and worked on.’

He concluded that if the youth takes the use of social media seriously in handling the water related issues, at least the continent would be further advanced in its quest to achieve SDG 6 which focusses on water and sanitation.

Technical officer of programs at the African Water Association, Djalia Umutangampundu said she was ‘confident that this use of social media will provide a great deal of potential exposure time for their advocacy campaign of sensitizing the community to be considerate consumers of the commodity.’