Examining the Influencing Factors of Access to Improved Water Sources in Sub-Saharan Africa

This research aims to examine factors that influence access to improved water sources (AIWS) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) from 1990-2020. Even though extant literature on AIWS has focused on water quality, just a few have centered on urbanisation and other socio-economic indicators. This research, therefore, employed robust empirical methods to analyse the impact of urbanisation on AIWS in SSA. Economic growth, labor, climate change and human capital development were used as associated variables to explore urbanisation’s influence on AIWS. The result of the Johansen cointegration test revealed a statistically significant relationship between AIWS and all the independent variables. Results of the Autoregressive Distributed lag (ARDL) long-run coefficients of urbanisation, economic growth, labor, and human capital development (HCD) showed a positive impact on AIWS. Furthermore, the result of the short-run coefficients revealed that a unit change in urbanisation, economic growth, labor, and HCD will increase AIWS by 14.270, 1.508, 1.225, and 0.647 units whereas CO2 will decrease AIWS by 0.914 units respectively. The Granger causality result displays a unidirectional causality running from HCD and economic growth to AIWS. A bidirectional causality existed between urbanization and labor to AIWS. Moreover, no causal relationship existed between CO2 and AIWS in SSA. This study thus, recommends that countries within SSA should formulate and implement feasible urban planning policies that focus on providing sustainable, accessible, and quality water sources for all. In addition, the provision of 21st century employment opportunities should be a propriety of authorities in SSA countries to enable citizens afford improved water, thereby, achieving the SDG 6 by 2030 and beyond.