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

tive framework, and could include the formulationof up-to-date databases on the region’s watersupply and use, the operation and maintenanceof hydro meteorological networks, planning, design,construction and operation of water installationsas well as the establishment of a chargingand tariff system to recover capital investmentand operational and maintenance costs.Box 15.9: Statement of the African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW)Water – A Key to Sustainable Development in Africa - 12 May 2003GOVERNING WATER WISELYTowards achieving the targets set at the Millennium Summit and the World Summit on SustainableDevelopment (WSSD)IntroductionWe, the Members of the Steering Committee of the African Ministerial Council on Water (AMCOW), having metin Dakar, Senegal, from 20 to24 May 2003, adopt the “NEPAD Statement on International Solidarity with Africafor the achievement of the water-related targets in the Millennium Development Goals and the outcomes of theWorld Summit on Sustainable Development”. Our meeting is part of our quest for implementation actions in linewith the expectations of the Johannesburg Summit.For over 30 years, numerous conferences and international agreements have built the framework for today’s waterresource policies and decisions. The international community, in both the millennium goals and the outcomesof the World Summit on Sustainable Development, underlined that the global water crisis is a threat to economicdevelopment, poverty reduction and the environment, and hence to peace.I. Time for Action: Towards a new regional and global compact for achieving the targets onwater in AfricaWe note that the supply and quality of freshwater in Africa remains one of the most critical issues of the twenty-firstcentury.In Africa close to 40 per cent of the population are without access to safe water supply and even more lack adequatesanitation. A number of partnership initiatives as well as a new water policy framework were announcedat the WSSD, including the recent reform of EU water policy and the new Water Framework Directive of theEU. The need to integrate sustainable water management in national and regional development strategies is nowwidely recognized as a prerequisite for achieving the MDGs on water in Africa.We welcome the international community’s recognition that, in Africa, over 40 per cent of our people have noaccess to water. We call on the international community, in conformity with the NEPAD goals, to work with Africain addressing the myriad challenges inherent in long-term water management. They should support regionalefforts to develop coherent water management strategies, set up appropriate bodies at the national, regional andlocal levels, and attract the necessary public and private investment.In this regard, we applaud the solidarity of the EU with Africa in the water sector, as manifested in the launch,on the occasion of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, of a major initiative to helpachieve, in our region, the targets set at the Millennium Summit and in Johannesburg to reduce by half the numberof people without access to drinking water and sanitation by the year 2015.We recognize that the achievement of those targets calls for measures and initiatives of a very special characteron the part of all concerned, including our countries and civil societies as well as bilateral and multilateral agencies,the private sector and other stakeholders, if we are to mobilize the resources needed. We also fully realizethe urgent need for innovative mechanisms to enable us to mobilize significant sources of financing from public,private and international resources.353