Africa: African nations finalise safe-water initiatives

Updated - Monday 12 January 2004

The Pan-African Implementation and Partnership Conference on Water (PANAFCON), held in conjunction with Africa Water Week, sought to create solutions to the crises that have left 300 million African people without reasonable access to safe water. The 45 ministers helped launch a series of programs, including the National Task Forces on Water and Sanitation, which will prepare national plans with service delivery targets for achieving water and sanitation goals by 2015; the African Water Facility, with a budget goal of US$ 600 million (EUR 468 million) for medium-term water and sanitation projects; the African Water Journal, an outlet to spread knowledge; the Water and Sanitation for African Cities (Phase II); the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative and the G8 Action Plan on Water for Africa. The ministers also signed a declaration with the European Commission to implement an African-European Union Strategic Partnership on Water Affairs and Sanitation. "Too many preventable diseases and deaths and economic losses are caused by floods, droughts, pollution and other water-related hazards," the ministers said in their final conference document.

See also: Summary of PANAFCON by IICD, http://www.iisd.ca/vol05/enb05200e.html;
See also: Africa: warning of serious water crisis in Africa, Source Weekly 49-50, 19 Dec 2003, http://www.irc.nl/page/7637

Contact: Yinka Adeyemi, Communication Officer UN/ECA, yadeyemi@uneca.org

Source: UN Wire, 15 Dec 2003
UN/ECA Press Release, no. 28 2003

PANAFCON, http://www.uneca.org/panafcon/