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

CONCLUSIONS ANDRECOMMENDATIONSMost reports and documents written to date onAfrica’s water resources development indicatesthat the level of water application in the generalsocio-economic development efforts of Africancountries is very low. Thinking scientifically andtechnically, such a situation calls for timelyconcerted efforts to holistically analyse thehydrological and climatic fluxes over Africa inorder to assess the water resources available overtime and space to cater for the ever-increasingcompeting water demands, without impairing theenvironmental resources and ecosystems of thecontinent. The rich store of knowledge andinformation about water resources developmentand management in the developed economies,including the achievements and failures in this fieldcontinuously inform international water policieswhich can be used as a launching pad for Africa’sintegrated water resources management efforts.Africans have indicated their resolve to embark ona forward-looking and integrated approach to waterresources management. Through the Africa WaterVision 2025 they have set out the goals andscheduled the programmes for matching demandwith supply over a given time and across a givengeographical spread, bearing in mind quantitativeand qualitative requirements in developing theresources.The present African Water Development Report isan initiative of UN-Water/Africa that aims toprovide vital data and information in connectionwith the objective of monitoring Africa’s progressin implementing the strategies and targets definedto meet the challenges of its water Vision. Theanalysis made in the report confirms the viewsgenerally expressed that there is a lack ofconsistent and reliable data on both the physicaland socio-economic aspects of water resources inAfrica. This is a fact that becomes even moreevident and distressing when the inconsistencies indata sources and the lack of harmonization of datadefinitions hamper comparative analysis of thewater situations of various countries. Examples ofthis abound when considering a range ofdefinitions on what access to safe drinking waterand hygienic sanitation facilities means in variouscountries.The Global Water Supply and Sanitation 2000Report can be considered as a benchmarkdatabase for Africa’s water supply and sanitationcoverage, through which progress in the AfricaWater Vision can be monitored. It must, however,be noted that the report is not explicit on the twomost important issues of safety and adequacy ofwater and sanitation services, which are vital forthe social well-being of the African populace inthe context of poverty alleviation and the burdenof water-related illnesses. The report gives mixedimpressions about Africa’s commitment tointernational water policy declarations as itconsiders progress in water supply and sanitationcoverage in the continent during the period 1990-2000.It highlights the point that although, in absolutefigures, water supply and sanitation facilities wereextended to many more Africans during theperiod, the percentage coverage was minimal forwater supply and negative for sanitation due torelatively higher population growth rates in thecontinent. Almost half of all the countries forwhich data were available had less than 50 percent coverage for sanitation, and few are thecountries whose total water supply coverageexceeded 75 per cent. Ten African countries haveless than 50 per cent coverage both for the currentnational water supply and for sanitation.These countries are Angola, Burkina Faso, Chad,the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea,Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Rwanda andSierra Leone. The disparities between watersupply and sanitation coverage comes in twoforms. One is that sanitation lags far behind watersupply at all levels and the other is that ruralservices for both lag far behind urban services.Furthermore, in spite of the low level of wa-