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AfDB urges African countries to increase funding in water projects

Xinhua, July 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

The African Development Bank (AfDB) on Wednesday advised African countries to increase funding in water projects in the face of water crisis facing the continent.

Mohamed El Azizi, AfDB Director for Water and Sanitation Department, said for Africa to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals there must be political commitment, prioritization of water and sanitation issues, as well as more budget allocation to the water and sanitation sector.

El Azizi told a news conference in the east African nation's business capital Dar es Salaam that the AfDB has financed a number of water and sanitation projects in Africa, including Tanzania.

He was speaking at the ongoing 6th Africa Water Week which started on July 18 through July 22 whose theme was achieving the Sustainable Development Goals on Water Security and Sanitation.

"At the African Development Bank we are already supporting large scale water and sanitation projects like the Arusha Sustainable Urban Water and Sanitation Project in Tanzania which will cost over 200 U.S. dollars million," he said.

He said the AfDB was satisfied with Tanzania's commitment to the implementation of water and sanitation projects.

Since 2001 the AfDB has approved a total of nine water and sanitation projects in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar at a total cost of 700 million U.S. dollars.

On Monday, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) special envoy for Water in Africa, former Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, said Africa was facing serious clean water crisis.

Speaking at the opening of the 6th Africa Water Week conference, Kibaki said: "The water situation in the continent was not in good shape and urgent measures were needed to be taken to redress the situation."

Kibaki said the time for action was now and while each country was responsible to formulate its own strategies and through the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW) forum general continental goals could be set and reviewed.

"The immediate challenge that we must confront is the scarcity of clean water. The shortage of clean water directly affects the productivity of our people," said the former Kenyan leader.

However, the UNESCO water envoy said African governments alone could not solve all the challenges facing the water sector and "we need development partners and investors to play their part in pulling this through."

The AMCOW Executive Secretary, Bai-Mass Taal, said to solve water woes the continent needed an investment of 11 billion dollars per year, and currently only 4 billion dollars has been made available by the African governments annually.

"There's no country in our continent where water budget is among the top five, yet the situation is dire, as we finish this conference, about 60 children in the continent will die for drinking unclean water," he said.

Tanzania Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said African countries have common challenges of financial and technological resources to tap water resources and link it with the people.

Majaliwa suggested the need for African countries to establish trans-border water bodies that would initiate and regulate the common development of shared water resources between neighbouring African countries. Endit