Report on rationale and strategy for initiating water supply and sanitation programs in Sub-Saharan Africa. This strategy should be read in conjunction with the Africa Health Strategy Statement, dated January 1983, since this statement is designed to reach the same audience, namely in-country mission personnel charged with developing, monitoring and evaluating health, nutrition, population, human resource and rural development programs, and their host country counterparts, and USAID personnel in Washington and in regional offices who are responsible for programs contributing to health development in Africa.