African water ministers adopt Dar es Salaam roadmap for achieving water security and sanitation
Activities
at the expansive Julius Nyerere international conference centre in Dar
es Salaam hit a crescendo today as over 30 African water ministers and
high-level delegations from 53 African nations adopted a roadmap aimed
at achieving sustainable and universal access to safe water and
sanitation all over Africa.
The adoption of the roadmap titled “the Dar es Salaam Roadmap for achieving the N’gor Commitments on Water Security and Sanitation in Africa” drew the final curtains on the 10th AMCOW General Assembly and the 6th Africa Water Week which began on Monday the 18th of July 2016 in Tanzania.
With
a strategic objective of making considerable progress on water security
and sanitation in line with the Agenda 2030 by improving efficiency,
transparency and integrity within sector institutions to achieve
sustainable services and create a conducive investment climate as well
as integrating the agenda for water, sanitation and climate to improve
health and nutrition outcomes, the Dar es Salaam roadmap aspires to
ensure coherence in policy implementation, increase gender, equity and
social inclusion, and transboundary cooperation in Africa.
African
water ministers believe that by increasing transparency and
accountability in the sector, governments across Africa would be able to
account for financial contributions, focus on complementing existing
initiatives with a view to avoiding overlap and redundancy and ensure a
participatory environment for civil society and citizens in policy
formulation, sector planning and monitoring.
The
roadmap also recognizes the role of innovative financing and budgetary
prioritisation for the water sector, sanitation and monitoring. Other
aspects of the ministers’ plan of action for the continent’s water
resources include provision of drinking water, improved sanitation,
hygiene, effective and efficient management of wastewater, transboundary
water resources, and strengthening Africa’s capacity to respond climate
change.
The 10th General Assembly of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) which held on the sidelines of the biennal 6th
Africa Water Week also witnessed a change of guards as the Water and
Irrigation Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, H.E Gerson
Lwenge took over the reins of AMCOW presidency from his Senegalese
counterpart, H.E Amadou Mansour Faye who held fort from 2014 – 2016
while Dr.
Canisius Kanangire was officially unveiled as the new AMCOW Executive
Secretary. Dr Kanangire, who hails from Rwanda, is the immediate
Executive Secretary of Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC) has over
two decades of high level experience in water resources management and
he succeeds Mr Bai Mass Taal who leaves AMCOW after 8 years of admirable
leadership.
In
his acceptance speech, the new AMCOW President expressed delight at
AMCOW’s rotational mechanism which led to his emergence and he urged his
colleagues to roll up their sleeves for the onerous but achievable task
of ensuring the realisation of the SDG-6 in Africa. “We must build and
sustain cooperation among riparian countries in managing transboundary
water reources as it is a fact that the more we invest in managing water
resources, the more we strengthen AMCOW and the more we advance
collectively towards achieving SDG-6,” Engr Lwenge said.
To
serve alongside the new AMCOW President are Water resources ministers
from Central African Republic, South Sudan, Egypt, Swaziland and Liberia
who were elected AMCOW Vice Presidents representing central, east,
north, southern and west African sub-regions.
Addressing
the General Assembly, Vice President Samia Suluhu of Tanzania urged the
august assembly of water ministers from across the continent to “tackle
present and future challenges by diversifying our sources of water and
be innovative in financing mechanisms taking into account the huge
funding requirements for the sector, and the urgency of mobilizing funds
to put the right infrastructure and skilled manpower to develop and
manage the sector more efficiently.”
Also
speaking at Africa’s flagship water event, the commissioner for rural
economy and agriculture of the African Union Commission, H.E Rhoda Peace
Tumusiime implored Member States to step up efforts to realize the
African Agenda 2063 on the ‘Africa we want’ because water is key to
reducing poverty in Africa. “There is need for us to put in place sound
policies, legal and regulatory frameworks to support investments from
various sources in water, sanitation and hygiene and also promote gender
equality and women empowerment,” she added.
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