Africa gets mechanism to address water challenges

Mrs. Ochekpe, Minister of Water Resources, made the declaration while opening the 14th session of African Water Facility Governing Council meeting in Tunis, Tunisia at the weekend.
African Water Facility is an initiative of the Africa Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) to mobilise resources to finance water resources development activities in Africa. It is hosted and managed by African Development Bank (AfDB).
The governing council is made up of 13 members appointed by AMCOW, donors to the fund, the African Development Bank, the African Union and UN-Water/Africa.
It focuses more on project preparation, water governance providing grants and assistance to ensure that projects are bankable, viable and future proofed with clear opportunity for effective implementation.
At the 14 session of the governing council in Tunis, Mrs. Ochekpe said African Water Facility has prepared projects that have mobilised committed financing totalling 791 million Euros for implementation and follow-up.
Mrs. Ochekpe said that available information showed that over 3.2 million people are expected to benefit from improved access to sanitation facilities and over 2.8 million people will benefit from access to improved drinking water sources as a result of the completed AWF preparation and small scale investment.
She also announced that Nordic Development Fund has joined the group of donors and had already committed 6 million Euros in the AWF fund and that Austria, has also contributed one million Euro.
The minister used the opportunity to call on African countries that have not paid their pledges since 2012 to do so, adding that quick redemption of pledges give clear message to AWF development partners that African countries value the work of the AWF in preparing projects and mobilising finance for development of water and sanitation in their countries.