The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is once again supporting access to water and sanitation in Africa. On 16 June 2023, the US government agency responsible for economic development and humanitarian assistance worldwide pledged to invest $3 million in the African Water Facility (AWF), an initiative of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW).
Read also –
The AWF, which is hosted and managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), will draw on funding from USAID to strengthen the grants and technical assistance provided to African countries and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in the preparation of bankable investment projects in the water and sanitation sectors.
Improving water supply for 2.6 million people by 2025
“Achieving water and sanitation security for all requires large-scale investment in water supply and sanitation, improved governance of water resources and operations, and the design of climate-resilient infrastructure,” says the AfDB.
AWF’s approach is part of its 2017-2025 Strategic Plan, which aims to mobilise financial resources to increase water and sanitation security in Africa for 2.6 million people and 2.4 million people respectively. Currently, around 400 million Africans do not have access to basic water supply services on the continent, while more than 700 million do not have access to decent sanitation facilities, according to the AfDB. In addition, some 200 million people still practise open defecation and 750 million have no access to sanitation in Africa.
Read Also – KENYA: USAID to invest $130 million in drinking water and sanitation
To improve access to these services by 2025 on the continent, “the AWF is also banking on innovation in service delivery”, says AWF coordinator Mtchera Chirwa. For the record, the AMCOW initiative has already allocated €205 million in grants to various water and sanitation projects in Africa and has enabled more than €1.7 billion in downstream investment in these sectors.
Inès Magoum