Thirsty Africa must dig deeper for water

NAIROBI, Sep 22 (Reuters) New water sources are desperately needed in Africa where some 300 million people lack access to safe drinking water, the head of World Water Council said.

Sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of a few countries, is failing to meet U.N. targets set at the start of the millennium to halve the number of people without access to clean water or sanitation by 2015.

Out of an estimated population of more than 700 million, about 313 million Africans lack access to basic sanitation with drought, war, pollution and fast urban growth hindering access.

''Africa represents about 24 per cent of land surface yet has only 9 percent of water resources,'' said Loic Fauchon yesterday, head of the World Water Council, an international organisation that groups governments, firms and civil society groups.

''That means we have to better the capacity we have to find other water sources maybe with new techniques. ... You have to help Africa draw water deeper just like it is done for petrol and gas,'' he said without giving details.

Speaking on the sidelines of an ''Africities'' summit in Nairobi where mayors and planners are meeting to seek solutions to the problems caused by swelling populations in African cities, Fauchon said the 2015 target was too lofty.

''(You need) a lot more time. ... What was forecast in terms of clean water and sanitation was too ambitious,'' he told Reuters.

''We do not even know at what pace we are going at.'' He said Africa's obstacles to achieving the U.N. Millenium Development Goal (MDG) for water and sanitation were financial, institutional and the ''know-how''.

''The amounts dedicated to water and sanitation are ridiculously low,'' he said, adding that only 5 per cent of public aid and 6 per cent of investments were allocated to such projects. ''This is charity but it is also an economic error.'' Thousands of delegates are meeting in Nairobi to look at ways of empowering local governments in Africa to achieve the MDGs, which also include halving extreme poverty by 2015.

African cities, which are creaking under rapid urbanisation, were urged yesterday to seek a slice of a growing number of environmental funds, which could assist in financing cleaner energy supplies and better transport systems.

The United Nations said in terms of sustainable transport projects, only Tanzania's Dar es Salaam had taken advantage of such funding with a rapid bus transit system.

''The streets and infrastructure of far too many of Africa's cities are being overwhelmed by traffic, leading to rising levels of hazardous air pollution and impacts on the economy,'' said Achim Steiner, U.N. Environment Programme executive director.

''Africa should consider the mistakes made on continents like Europe which indicate that trying to build your way out of the problem by constructing more and more roads can be expensive and deliver only short-term benefits.'' Reuters SY DB1057