African leaders set sights on achieving SDG-6 on Water Security

African leaders on Monday converged on Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to deliberate on ways to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on Water Security and Sanitation.

The leaders, who are attending the 6th Africa Water Week, said with deliberate efforts and commitment from member states the goal to achieve adequate and clean water could be realised. 

Addressing the opening ceremony, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, Prime Minister of United Republic of Tanzania, said there was need to address challenges in shortage of human resource and capital investment in the water sector in Africa.

He said if Africa was to achieve meaningful development and the SDG 6 it needed to build capacity in hydrology, water resources engineering, water quality and water infrastructure.

Majaliwa said from ancient civilisations water had been intertwined with all facets of mankind including livelihood, dignity and development. 

``All these aspects eventually build up and converge to the need by mankind to have assurance of continuous availability of water of desired quality and quantity.

``However, human beings live within defined political boundaries while shared water resources do exist in natural domains with no respect to political boundaries.’’

Speaking on the theme, ‘Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) on Water Security and Sanitation’, Majaliwa said all stakeholders must place access to water at the heart of their policies and programmes.

He said the conference would allow all stakeholders to draw and define a joint pathway, which would ensure the implementation of water resources management and development programmes in Africa. 

His Excellency Mwai Kibaki, a former President of Kenya, said the event was an opportunity towards raising hope for water management for all.

He said water was a critical driver of economic progress, adding that its availability would promote overall development and improve livelihood.

Kibaki said it was sad to note that water situation in Africa called for concrete and urgent steps and appealed to all stakeholders to make access to water and sanitation a reality.

``Now is the time to address this challenge, governments, civil society organisations, and the overall population, must take action, only then will Africa be free from the effect of lack of water.’’

The former president called for the strengthening of partnerships from all stakeholders, saying no government can fully provide water for all its citizens, without including the private sector.

Organized by the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW),the Africa water week represents a political commitment at the highest level for creating the platform to discuss and collectively seek solutions to Africa's water and sanitation challenges.