Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water & Sanitation & Hygiene Nov-Dec 2017 | Page 5
NEWS in brief
“Water for Africa”, the new African water initiative
launched with AfDB support
On November 11, 2017, the day after the Global Water
Action Day that marked the fourth day of COP23,
the “Water for Africa” initiative was the subject of a
presentation in the Morocco Pavilion, open to civil society
organizations.
“Water for Africa” was established under the auspices
of an African COP, COP22 held in Marrakech, at the
initiative of Morocco and with the blessing of the African
Development Bank, which immediately offered its support.
The Moroccan Secretary of State for Water, Charafat
Afilal; the Director of the Water Sciences Division and
Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme
at UNESCO, Blanca Jiménez-Cisneros, who is also a
member of the World Water Council; and Jean-Michel
Ossete, Coordinator of the African Water Facility at the
African Development Bank (AfDB), jointly chaired this
presentation of the initiative, which was celebrating its first
anniversary.
“The African Development Bank joined with this initiative
from the outset with all the necessary goodwill,” said
Afilal, expressing her gratitude to the partners who had
committed to it. She particularly emphasized the intensive
work done upstream to avoid any risk of duplication with
initiatives already ongoing in the sector. Just one year after
its inception, the initiative already has a portfolio of 10 or
so projects across the continent.
“In Marrakech, when we committed to have this initiative in
operation by COP23 in Bonn, it seemed impossible,” said
African Water Facility Coordinator Jean-Michel Ossete.
“But we really have met the challenge.” Ossete went on to
add that the African Development Bank had quickly and
“unhesitatingly” decided to fund the recruitment of an
expert with international renown for in-depth knowledge
of the challenges of this sector in Africa, in order to ensure
the quality of the paper presenting this African initiative.
Evidence of the Pan-African scope of “Water for Africa”
and the membership it generates, the African Minister s’
Council on Water (AMCOW) did not hesitate to endorse it
either. Present at this session, former AMCOW Executive
Bai Mass Taal also rejoiced, in his address, that water was
now at the heart of COP: “At the Copenhagen COP, or
even at Cancun, when I talked about water they looked at
me as though I was a Martian!”
In order to better highlight progress under the initiative,
Ossete set out the steps that would soon follow and which
would scale it up: from November 24 to 28, AMCOW
would be celebrating its 15th anniversary in Abuja, Nigeria.
This would also be the first AMCOW meeting to be
Around Africa
attended by Morocco, in its capacity as spearhead for the
“Water for Africa” initiative. Bamako is then set to host,
by mid-January 2018, the African Group of Negotiators
(AGN) – benefiting from the African Development Bank’s
support – gathered to take stock of nationally determined
contributions (NDCs) on the continent. This will be
followed, at World Water Day on March 22, by a meeting
for all the actors involved from the 54 African countries,
funding institutions in the water and climate sector and the
regional economic communities, as an opportunity to raise
awareness of the “Water for Africa” initiative and to roll it
out over the entire continent.
COP23, which opened on November 6, 2017 in Bonn,
closes on November 17. While Germany is hosting the
event for logistical reasons, this edition is chaired by Fiji, a
Pacific archipelago for which climate change is a pressing
reality, imperiled as it is by rising sea levels and extreme
weather events, such as hurricanes.
The event is being attended by a delegation of experts from
the African Development Bank, including specialists in
climate change, in negotiation, in the water and sanitation
sector, in agriculture, urbanization and sustainable cities.
Kenya
1.3 Million People from Ukambani to Benefit from
Thwake Dam
Nairobi - Some 1.3 million people from the Lower Eastern
Region are set to benefit from the Thwake Dam project
whose contract was officially signed recently by Water and
Irrigation Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa.
According to Wamalwa, Thwake will be the largest single
project in the country and the region, which will be
providing 134 million litres of water daily.
“Thwake dam
will be 10 times
larger
than
Ndakaini dam
and also the
largest in East
Africa. I want
to assure that
all the necessary
funding of this
project is in place
to ensure that it goes on as planned,” said Wamalwa.
He was joined by leaders from Kitui, Makueni and
Machakos who witnessed the signing of the contract which
they said will eliminate hunger in the Ukambani region.
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November - December 2017
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