By Adolf Kaure.
Various stakeholders of the African Water Facility gathered in Swakopmund for the 23rd meeting of the Governing Council held alongside the seventh edition of the Africa Sanitation and Hygiene Conference (AfricaSan7) from Monday.
Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Hon Calle Schlettwein, was recently appointed as the chairperson of the African Water Facility for the next two years.
According to him, despite Africa having the potential to become the breadbasket of the world due to the resource base that can enable the continent to achieve industrialization and prosperity for all its residents, development, investment and financing of sanitation and water on the continent are regressive.
“We must be very clear about the fact that Africa’s ambitions to elevate her population out of poverty to prosperity through accelerated industrialization and agriculture will be transformed into actionable progress only if sanitation and water is available securely, sustainably and in an affordable way,” he said.
Africa’s immediate challenge is to meet the targets of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6).
This includes supplying fresh and safe water to 400 million people who have no access to water as well as providing sanitation to 800 million people.
“We have to avail water to millions of people living in informal urban settings and we must prevent water pollution.”
“It is abundantly clear that we have to stand ready to unlock Africa’s development potential by availing water as pivotal enabler for all socio-economic development, including agriculture and industry,” said Schlettwein.
He added that the council’s developmental ambitions must be lived up to while facing a severe climate change crisis holding existential risks for life, livelihoods and global biodiversity.
“The effects are now clearly visible with droughts and floods increased intensity, with out of season storms, intense wild fires and consequent flooding, unprecedented heat waves, glacier melting, rising ocean levels.”
“All these climatic changes are having severe effects on the water cycle making secure sanitation and water supply more difficult, more expensive and often out of reach for developing countries.”
“Shortfalls in the required funding to address climate change and related water cycle aspects remain significant,” said Schlettwein.
The chairperson also emphasised how financial crises made future prospects of developing economies difficult.
“Currently the debt crisis, exchange trends, inflation and the formulation of the financial rules are fuelling inequality and make the future prospects for developing economies difficult.”
“This is especially relevant for Africa with its youthful population where a conducive economic climate for quality economic growth and job creation is much needed to ensure prosperity for our children,” he said.
Schlettwein further said that with the rise of political crisis, wars and political instability, tremendous collateral damage has been brought about for the African continent’s people.
“The African Water Facility was established in 2004 by the African Ministers Council on Water and set up as a special fund in the African Development Bank.”
“It is a unique and transformational continental accelerator, mobilizing financial resources for the preparation of water and sanitation investment projects to support the achievement of water security and sanitation for all.”
“As the Governing Council, our function is to determine the general policy direction of the Facility, to approve the operational focus, and to review the annual report of activities financed from its resources.”
The African Water Facility has had a significant impact in Africa’s efforts to actualize the Africa Water Vision.
Since inception, it has mobilized N$4.05 billion (€205 million) in grant funding, which has supported the preparation of 135 water and sanitation projects in 52 African Union Member States.
The projects that have been prepared with grant funding from the Facility have leveraged over N$31.6 billion (€1.6 billion) in downstream investments in the water and sanitation sector, providing access to safe water for an additional 14.1 million people.
“This Governing Council Meeting takes place at an important time for the Facility, 17 years after it commenced operations in 2006, and as we approach an important milestone of the 2025 Africa Water Vision, with just two years to go.”
The six-day meeting concludes on Saturday, 11 November.
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