Water for Sustainable Development in Africa

Abstract

Water is a precious yet non-renewable resource. Yet in Africa, the same water can be a source of life and death. Water is not only the most basic of need but also at the centre of sustainable development and essential for poverty eradication. Water is intimately linked to health, agriculture, energy and biodiversity. Without progress on water, reaching other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be difficult if not impossible. The fight against poverty will remain a pipe dream.

A lot of activities have been undertaken with the aim of highlighting the importance of water, linking water with sustainable development and indeed developing strategies for resolving the ever-increasing problems of water. These include the adoption of the Africa Water Vision in The Hague, Netherlands in March, 2000.

In order to address the many problems of water in Africa especially related to the coordination of the increasing number of initiatives in the Water sector in Africa, the African Water Task Force (AWTF) was established.

As part of developing solutions to the African water crisis, the AWTF held a regional conference in Accra Ghana. Some of the emerging issues from the Accra Conference are highlighted in the Accra declaration.

This paper highlights the linkages between water and sustainable development, water and poverty and the many facets that relate to water. It mainly addresses issues of water from the African perspective. A number of key events that have taken place and which have served as a basis for many policy pronouncements have been given.

The last section concentrates on what happened to water at the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg in September 2002.