East Africa: EA Govts Urged to Allocate Proper Water Budget

According to Situation Analysis Done by "WaterAid" Revealed Half the Population Within the Ethiopian Region Lacks Basic Drinking Water

Water stakeholders have urged governments in East Africa to allocate proper budget for protecting and preserving water sources and infrastructures across the region, to combat challenges of access to water.

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The stakeholders were participating in a roundtable conference organised by WaterAid East Africa ahead of the global commemoration of World Water Day 2023 which is marked every 22nd of March. This year’s theme is ‘Accelerating access to water in the face of climate change’.

The conference which was attended virtually and physically involved participants from Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.They discussed the significance of collaborations that will facilitate the access to sustainable and safe water, sanitation and hygiene in the region.

They all called for joint efforts of all stakeholders by prioritizing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) across the health sector, increase quantity and quality of financing and strengthen resilience of WASH to climate change.

Speaking during the conference held over the weekend, Regional Director, East Africa and Ethiopia WaterAid Olutayo Bankole-Bolawole said that, East Africa is one of the regions in the world that is most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

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“In the region, there has been a high level of climate-induced water shortage due to extreme weather events, with people facing food insecurity, and outbreaks of diarrheal diseases such as cholera,” she said.

According to situation analysis done by WaterAid in countries where it operates within the region in Ethiopia, only half of the population has basic drinking water. In Rwanda, 45 per cent of the population lacks access to basic water services, while in Uganda; only 56 per cent of the population has access to at least basic water supply. Ms Bolawole noted that, in 2015, the world committed to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6- the promise that everyone would have safely managed water and sanitation by 2030.

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She said that the proportion of the global population using safely managed drinking water services has increased from 70 per cent in 2015 to 74 per cent in 2020. Still, 2 billion people were without such services that year, including 1.2 billion people lacking even the basic level of service.

At the current rate of progress, she said the world will reach 81 per cent coverage by 2030, missing the target and leaving 1.6 billion people without safely managed drinking water supplies