African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

4. Sharing water resources: To promote peacefulcooperation and develop synergies betweendifferent uses of water at all levels,whenever possible, within and, in the caseof boundary and transboundary water resources,between states concerned, throughsustainable river basin management or otherappropriate approaches;5 Managing risks: To provide security fromfloods, droughts, pollution and other waterrelatedhazards;6. Valuing water: To manage water in a waythat reflects its economic, social, environmentaland cultural values for all its uses,and to move towards pricing water servicesto reflect the cost of their provision. Thisapproach should take account of the needfor equity and the basic needs of the poorand the vulnerable;7. Governing water wisely: To ensure goodgovernance so that the involvement of thepublic and the interests of all stakeholdersare included in the management of waterresources.The other four challenges emerged throughfurther interactions among policy makersand other stakeholders and were includedin the World Water development Report.They are:8. Water and cities: Covering issues of urbanareas and human settlements and their specificchallenges to water management.9. Water and industry: To focus on industryneeds in water and the responsibility to respectwater quality and to take account ofthe needs of competing sectors.10. Water and energy: To recognize that wateris vital for all forms of energy productionand ensure that energy requirements aremet in a sustainable manner.11. Ensuring the knowledge base: To recognizethat good water policies and managementdepend upon the quality of knowledgeavailable to decision makers.“People don’t want to live in reality.” But reality hasa way of forcing its way into human consciousness,and sooner or later we must acknowledge that ourrelationship to water is intimate, complex, and primal:if we abuse it, we inevitably suffer the consequences.Remove trees from the watershed, and the riverbelow floods; deplete aquifers, and the land abovesubsides; pollute or obstruct the river, and the effectsflow all the way to the sea. We must accommodateourselves to water, not the other way around. JacquesLeslieConcerted African Efforts to ImplementRegional and International Commitments.It is evident from both political and institutionalpoints of view that regional and subregional concertedefforts can go a long way to help Africancountries face the challenging task of harnessingtheir water resources for sustainable development.The African Union initiatives, the AfricanMinisters’ Council on Water (AMCOW), theAfrican Water Facility and the increasing roleof the African Development Bank in the watersector, with special reference to the Rural Waterand Sanitation Initiative, are all vivid indicatorsto the ongoing growing commitments to watersector development. One of the most importantevents which needs emphasising is the meetingof Heads of State and Government of the AfricanUnion, at the second Extraordinary Sessionof the Assembly of the Union, in Sirte, Libya,from 27 to 28 February 2004, in response to theproposal to convene an Extraordinary Sessionof the Assembly on Africa’s economic development,which was initially made by the LibyanLeader, Muammar Ghaddafi, during the secondOrdinary Session of the Assembly of the Union,held in Maputo, in July 2003. The meeting wasspecifically dedicated to Agriculture and Waterand culminated in the Sirte Declaration (Box 1.3and Box 1.4)INTRODUCTION - WATER FOR SUSTAINABLE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT17