Development partners urge African countries to implement water and sanitation projects
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| Jabulani Moleketi and Brigitte Girardin Partnership between South Africa and France |
Ms. Rhoda Tumusiime, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture,
African Union Commission, made the call at the sidelines of the Africa
Water Week in Dar Es Salaam.
Tumusiime urged countries in the continent to begin to invest in equitable and sustainable use of their water resources.
She said the commission was working to achieve the targets of Africa
Water Vision 2025 for equitable and sustainable use and management of
water resources for poverty alleviation and socio-economic development.
Tumusiime said effective management of water resources would promote development, inclusion and reduce poverty.
She stressed the need to monitor and report progress toward achieving
the SDGs as a way of establishing baselines for the global indicator
framework for Africa commitments.
Mr Mohammed El-Azizi, Director for Water and Sanitation, Africa
Development Bank, said the water sector in Africa was facing huge
challenges with most of them emanating from human activities.
El-Azizi also stressed the need to invest in resources and time to
develop new and innovative initiatives to manage scarce water resources
in Africa and beyond.
``It’s time to be innovative in all fronts of the water sector in all
our countries, from research to policy formulation and implementation,”
he said.
El-Azizi said sustainable development was the framework for
international organisations to support African countries toward scaling
up access to water.
He said as the world’s population was increasing, African countries were
doubling in size, saying this was a challenge for effective
distribution of water resources to all.
El-Azizi called for urgent steps and actions in to treat waste water and
ensure water security for the socio-economic development of the region.
He said the bank was investing €6 billion in 43 water projects in 23 countries in the region to scale up access to water.
Dr Maniza Zaman, UNICEF Country Representative in Tanzania, said the
goal six of the SDGs envisages universal, sustainable, affordable and
equitable access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.
Zaman said UNICEF’s engagement in Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
was based on the mandate to promote and protect the fulfillment of
children's rights.
She said the fund was focusing on ``Leave No One Behind’’ to ensure that
all children were reached with quality services, including the poor,
disabled and those in remote areas.
She quoted the 2015 Annual Global Analysis by the WHO/UNICEF Joint
Monitoring Programme of WASH as saying there was widening gap between
those who have access to WASH and those without.
``Access to sanitation continues to be a major challenge; the number of
people in sub-Saharan Africa without access to sanitation has increased
since 1990, with nearly one in four people practicing open defecation,”
she said.
Zaman added that signing the SDGs meant keeping the promise, hence the need to urgently close the widening inequality gaps.
The 6th Africa Water Week (AWW-6), organized by African Ministers'
Council on Water (AMCOW), aspires to lay the building blocks for Africa
to achieve the SDG 6 as well as other inter-linking SDGs connected with
water resources management.
The week represents a political commitment at the highest level for
creating platform to discuss and collectively seek solutions to Africa's
water and sanitation challenges
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