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Welcome Statement by
K. Y. Amoako, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
It is a pleasure to welcome you to Addis Ababa and the Economic Commission for Africa. We, at ECA, are most delighted to co-host this conference with the Government of Ethiopia, represented by His Excellency Dawit Yohannes and His Excellency Shiferaw Jarso, the Minister of Water Resources, an acknowledged leader in our collective struggle to develop Africa's water resources, eliminate poverty and foster regional economic integration. Mr.
Chairman, It has been three and a half years since we met at the Second World Water Forum in The Hague to map out a coherent strategy for the sustainable development and management of Africa's water. Some of you may recall the words of a young woman who addressed us at that Forum. Her name is Onyema Onwuka and she explained that in Nigeria, Onyema means "Who Knows?" With this simple question in mind, she encouraged us to imagine a different Africa, one that matches our collective dreams. Onyema said, and I quote, "Picture a strong Africa, An Africa where all children, parents and grandparents are well fed. An Africa where proper management of water leads to the banishment of diseases such as kwashiorkor, diarrhea and dysentery from every city, every village and where the full bellies of children will not signify want and disease but welfare. An Africa where malaria and river blindness will be names from the past" - end of quote. Onyema Onwuka challenged us to work for this better future through coalitions and partnerships within Africa and between Africa and its development partners, based on equality, mutual respect and common interest. The strategy that we subsequently agreed on at the Hague, the African Water Vision 2025, as well as the Millennium Development Goals on water, the New Partnership for Africa's Development framework and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, clearly identify the main challenges we face in managing our water resources to achieve a strong, healthy and productive Africa. They include: First, reducing the proportion of people without access to safe and adequate water supply by 50 per cent by 2015. Second, increasing the productivity of rain-fed and irrigated agriculture, and increasing the size of irrigated areas by 50 per cent by 2015. Third, progressively increasing the development of Africa's water resources potential over the next two decades to meet the increased demand from agriculture, hydropower, industry, tourism & transportation at national level. Fourth, significantly improving the management of droughts, floods and desertification. Fifth, effectively conserving and restoring the environment, biodiversity and life-supporting ecosystems through the allocation of sufficient water. Unfortunately, since we drew up our action plans in The Hague, Johannesburg and elsewhere, there has been little improvement in the situation. Access to water, a basic human need, still eludes large proportions of our populace. Poor management of this precious gift of nature, therefore, continues to hinder our progress and is a major constraining factor in food production, health and industrial development. Mr. Chairman, As we know, Africa's main water-resource management issues are related to water availability and access. Additionally, our water resources continue to face many threats - both natural and human. The natural threats include the multiplicity of trans-boundary water basins, extreme and temporal variability of climate and rainfall, growing water scarcity, and desertification. The human threats include the pursuit of inappropriate governance and institutional arrangements in managing national and transnational water basins; the depletion of water resources and health effects through pollution, environmental degradation, and deforestation; failure to invest adequately in resource assessment, protection and development; and unsustainable financing of investments in water supply and sanitation. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to address all these concerns with haste. If we fail to do so, history will not judge us kindly. For, here and now, at the beginning of the 21st century, we have it in our power to effectively deal with all of our water-resource management issues, as well as many of the threats I have just mentioned. Indeed, we have already formulated numerous strategies to do just that. We know that we can significantly reduce the proportion of people without access to adequate safe water and sanitation if we implement policies that stress better household water-quality management and improved family hygiene; expand water supply and sanitation coverage; and upgrade service levels to ensure reliable supplies of acceptable quality. Similarly, we know that we can make bold strides towards achieving food security by increasing productivity of rain-fed and irrigated agriculture and increasing the size of irrigated areas. Additionally, we are well aware of the need to fully develop our continental water resources and effectively manage adverse climatic conditions such as droughts, floods and desertification. So if we know all this, why are we still making such slow progress, if any, towards the targets we have set ourselves for achieving our water related socio-development objectives? The answer is encapsulated by one word: ACTION. This unacceptable situation must be reversed through decisive action by all of us and that decisive action must begin today. We simply need to put our money where our mouth is and our willpower behind our words. It is timely that this is the first high-level gathering to focus entirely on the implementation of the regional water agenda and forging of partnerships for water resources development in Africa. In many ways, the very theme of this conference is a candid acknowledgement that we have exhausted discussions at previous meetings, and that the time has come to truly demonstrate our determination to move beyond talk to action. The crux of the matter is how to mobilize resources -- financial and institutional -- to translate all the good intentions, existing commitments and action plans into political and economic decisions both within Africa and beyond. In that regard, the success of this conference will be measured by the degree of implementation of new funding mechanisms to leverage greater investments in the Water Sector that follows it. Mr. Chairman, The evaluation of the United Nations Water and Sanitation Decade from 1980 to 1990 showed that ours was the only continent, which, overall, fared worse at the end than at the beginning in terms of access to water and sanitation. Since then we have moved to set new targets such as the Millennium Development Goals, the African Water Vision and so on. Nonetheless, national and international water sector financing arrangements still do not reflect the funding required for achieving these targets. According to the WHO Global Assessment 2000 Report, the average annual investment between 1990 to 2000 for water supply and sanitation in the Africa region was 4.6 billion US dollars, or 40 percent of the requirement for meeting basic needs. At the same time, the new investment required for meeting the targets set in the African Water Vision Framework for Action is estimated to be about 20 billion US dollars per annum. The size of this funding gap is truly staggering. Additionally, a breakdown of the source of the current investment in the African water sector is also a spur to action for us. They say charity begins at home, but many African governments are still not channeling adequate resources to this sector. Most of our countries continue to depend on donor funds for almost all their water development budgets. According to WHO, the contribution of external support agencies to the domestic water sector in Africa, at 68 percent, is the highest in the world. In several countries, little more than one percent of the public sector budget is directed towards funding low-cost water and sanitation. In that context, the focus here in Addis Ababa, over the next five days, should be on how to give substance to the necessary partnerships, both within and outside the UN family, for the effective implementation of the African water agenda through sufficient financing. One important framework for this is the African Water Facility, which you will be discussing later today. With the goal of raising at least 615 million US dollars by 2008 to enable it achieve its objectives, the facility is clearly not the panacea to solve all the problems in Africa's water sector. However, its planned activities could contribute to the reduction of the financial shortfall in investment in the water sector in several ways. First, by promoting "learning by doing" through its capacity building programme, and second, by creating an enabling environment through its promotion of the institutional reforms necessary to attract greater investment (public and private, domestic and international), the facility is a potential catalyst for significantly boosting financing in the African water sector. Other options to be considered in this regard include proposals on how to guarantee the use of a fixed percentage of HIPC savings for investment in the water sector and how to achieve pledges from all our countries to spend at least 5 percent of national budgets on financing the water infrastructure. Movement in these areas will signal that African governments are seriously committed to doing they can to address their challenges in this area. Excellencies, Distinguished Guests By securing firm African financial commitments to the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals on water, this Conference can show that the continent is ready for action. These commitments and the other key initiatives that are likely to come out of this meeting will also prepare a firm foundation on which to build the strong partnerships between all stakeholders, regional and international, that is required if we are to solve Africa's water crisis. Indeed, we can only succeed in tackling the daunting challenges before us through concrete action, meaningful cooperation and collective goodwill. Let me end by wishing you successful and fruitful deliberations. ECA is at your service to ensure that your stay in Addis is a comfortable and productive one. Thank you.
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