African ministers urge self-driven initiatives to address water challenges

African Water Ministers at the sixth edition of the Africa Water Week conference have called for increased self-driven and innovative approach to addressing water challenges.

Researchers and drivers of water policy have also warned that continued population and economic growth, combined with climate change, could worsen water shortages in some parts of the continent by 2025. These challenges are coming at a time many African countries are mapping pathways towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to the ministers, the flagship water event on the continent, which began this week at the Julius Nyerere International Conference Centre in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, provides the unique opportunity to explore pathways of addressing water challenges.

The meeting, being attended by government representatives from Africa, civil society organisations and experts in the water sector, is expected to draw a road-map through which leaders will make commitments at the highest level towards achieving a universal and equitable access to water and sanitation for all.

Tanzanian Minister of Water and Irrigation, Gerson Lwenge, said: “We need new ideas and self-driven approaches to addressing the issues of water in Africa.”

Also, President of African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) and Senegalese Hydraulic and Sanitation Minister, Amadou Mansour Faye, the Executive Secretary, Bai Mass Taal and other high-level speakers at the opening of the conference emphasised the need to address issues related to achieving the SDG-6 and other inter-related goals with emphasis on new approaches adapted to the African reality.

“The SDGs is all about using local initiatives by both the private sector and the government working together,” Taal said.