The host country of the 9th World Water Forum, has made considerable progress in the provision of water in rural areas.
President Macky Sall had promised to reduce disparities between cities and villages. To achieve this, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is working in the most remote corners of Senegal to democratize drinking water.
“In recent years, we have stepped up our efforts with the construction of nearly 2,100 boreholes and more than 670 water towers, the commissioning of a third water treatment plant with a capacity of 200,000 cubic meters per day, the ongoing construction of the first seawater desalination unit in Dakar, the densification of water transport and distribution networks and the intensification of sanitation work,” the Senegalese leader explained.
He was speaking at the opening of the 9th World Water Forum whose theme is “Water Security for Peace and Development.” Senegal, the host country of this event, aims to achieve the sixth goal, which is universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation, out of the 17 set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
To achieve this, Sall said, there must be a more sustained individual and collective commitment against industrial and domestic water waste and more environmentally friendly irrigated agriculture.
The responsible use of water is necessary at a time when it is becoming so scarce as to cause inter-state tensions. To prevent this, the current chairman of the African Union (AU) noted the urgency of acting on several levers.
For him, it is a matter of encouraging more concerted management of transboundary basins, continuing the establishment of effective and socially equitable regulatory systems because water cannot be considered as a simple economic good whose exploitation is subject only to the law of the market, promoting the circular economy of sanitation through the treatment and recycling of wastewater in order to reduce the environmental and health impact, and stimulating the creation of new income generating activities.
Senegal continues “its tradition of peace diplomacy and consultation on water resources” according to president Sall. This line justifies its membership in two basin organizations, namely the Organization for the Development of the Senegal River (OMVS) and the Organization for the Development of the Gambia River (OMVG) created in 1972 and 1978 respectively.
Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia and Senegal “are working together in a concerted manner through activities and especially through common development infrastructures,” said Macky Sall.
A signatory of the 1992 Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, Senegal took the initiative to include in the agenda of the United Nations Security Council, the first time in April 2016, the theme of water, peace and security during its term as a non-permanent member.
“We had wanted to contribute to international awareness of the high risk of water-related conflicts in the 21st century,” said the Senegalese president, not without adding that “the time has come for a body like the G20 to pay attention to water-related issues in the image of what the World Bank and other international institutions have been doing for decades.”
However, the Senegalese leader maintains that it is time for the G20 to broaden its membership to allow the AU to become a member, given the global issues at stake in the water problem and many other global concerns.
“Africa has more than a quarter of the member countries of the United Nations. Africa is 30 million km2 and 1.4 billion people. It is the 8th largest economy in the world in terms of Gross Domestic Product,” Sall said.
The World Water Forum ends on March 26. The Presidents of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Ethiopia – Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, Mohamed Oul El-Ghazouani, Sahle-Work Zewde – attended the launch of activities.
ID/te/lb/abj/APA