Sierra Leone is a familiar and news-worthy country. It is most often noted for its large and controversial industry of diamond mining. A brutal civil war that lasted a decade has left many images of amputees and refugees, impoverished and displaced. The average life expectancy for a Sierra Leonean is only 56 years. One of the lowest in the world, much of this statistic can be blamed on poor living conditions. Almost half of the population is not using a protected water source for drinking. Most of the unsafe drinking sources are freestanding water, such as ponds, and unprotected wells. Infections and parasites , most found in contaminated water, lead to the largest cause of death in Sierra Leone. Poor sanitation generates high risk of hepatitis A and Typhoid fever. Stillwater breeds malaria-carrying mosquitoes that plague the region with one of the most common deadly infections contracted in the area. Overall, health and standard of living are poor.

Sierra Leone's environment is disturbing production of agriculture and management of water. It has a rainy season about six months of each year. The rain is too torrential to be collected or used properly. Floods fill wells with waste and spread contaminated water to other drinking sources. For the amount of rain that soaks their land during the summers, Sierra Leoneans are confronted by equally difficult droughts during a winter dry season.

Sierra Leoneans collect most of their drinking water from polluted sources. Pollutants and poor sanitation are attributed to some of the health problems in the country. Water pollution in Sierra Leone is the contamination of water bodies such as boreholes, streams, and rivers. It transcends many fields of human activity. Rivers that serve rural communities as sources of drinking water encounter challenges of pollution as a result of agricultural, industrial and domestic activities. The country is inadequately supplied with pipe-borne water. Springs and dugout wells, which are common sources of drinking water, are not well protected. Hence, seepage from surrounding pollutants and toilets are common. Water pollution (particularly drinking water) is a serious problem in the country. Almost half of the population of Sierra Leone has no access to safe drinking water and only 13% of the population has access to improved non-shared sanitation facilities. Some 74% of urban dwellers have access to safe drinking water while only 46% of rural people use safe water. In the Northern Region, only 30% of residents have access to safe drinking water. According to the Sierra Leone Water Company, on average only 35% of rural residents have access to safe drinking water.

In 2012, Sierra Leone experienced the worst cholera outbreak in its history, having over 20,000 cases with 392 deaths. The main cause of the outbreak was as a result of the heavy rainfall and flooding combined with poor hygiene practices, unsafe water sources, and ineffective waste management in the country.

There are several causes of water pollution in Sierra Leone but, the most common is the sewage efflux and surface run-offs into boreholes, streams and rivers. In most parts of the country, boreholes and rivers are the means by which most of the water is supplied for drinking and domestic, agricultural, and industrial use. Since rivers flow through the country from the north-east to south-west, polluting the rivers upstream can affect the people and greatly endanger marine life and the environment downstream.

Supporting WASH interventions in Sierra Leone is therefore critical in improving child health, welfare and developed within WASH in education (SDG4), health care facilities (SDG 3), Menstrual hygiene management and other women and girls interventions (SDG 5), WASH programming to reduce malnutrition – child stunting (SDG 2) to end child poverty (SDG 1); child protection and women from violence and dignity (SDG 16) among others SDGs.