Water is becoming a commoditized industry

MEXICO CITY, Mar 20: Drought, poverty, war, pollution and chaotic urban growth are preventing African governments from supplying clean water to their people, United Nations officials said.

With the exception of Uganda and South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa is failing to meet United Nations targets set at the start of the millennium to halve the number of people without access to clean water or sanitation by 2015, the UN said yesterday.

Some 300 million Africans lack access to safe drinking water, and 313 million lack access to basic sanitation. Africa has an estimated population of over 800 million.

''We need investment,'' Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, executive director of the UN Human Settlements Programme, said at the fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City. ''Water and sanitation will not come by decree.'' The United Nations announced at a news conference a 550 million dollars loan from the African Development Bank to be spent on small-scale urban water projects over the next five years.

Kalyan Ray, a UN infrastructure expert, said that was not enough to meet Africa's water needs.

''Africa is variously quoted as needing between 15 billion dollars and 30 billion dollars over the next 10 years,'' he said. ''That is a very tall order.'' East African countries, including Kenya and Somalia, are suffering a severe drought that aid groups worry will cause thousands of deaths.

Ray said disruption caused by droughts and wars made it harder for governments to supply their citizens with basic services.

''People start moving because simply they cannot sustain themselves or their cattle,'' he said. ''When they move the (problem is) providing their basic necessities.'' Africa's largest body of water, Lake Victoria, has been seriously polluted by sewage and industrial waste as populations burgeon in shoreside towns and cities.

Last year, Tanzania, which borders Lake Victoria, cancelled a contract with two European-based water and sewerage companies because of non-performance under a 10-year agreement.

Tanzanian aid worker Andrew Mushi said his monthly water bill was 21 dollars, and he had to boil that water before drinking it. He said the average wage for a university-educated government worker in Tanzania was 85 dollars a month.

Tibaijuka said more investment was needed to help governments in the region keep up with rapid and unplanned growth of cities and small towns, where good access to clean water and sanitation is rare.

Africa is urbanizing rapidly and half its population is expected to be living in cities by 2030, causing new problems in a region where water has traditionally been collected by women and carried to their homes.

''In small towns going to collect water is now not an option for many women,'' Tibaijuka said. ''Water vendors are now preventing women and girls from even reaching a spring in an urban center.

REUTERS