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UNICEF and Bank join in watsan support for Africa

A memorandum of understanding between the two agencies was signed in Washington today by Mr. Sadig Rasheed, Director of UNICEF Programme Division and Mr. Peter Watson, Sector Director, Infrastructure and Energy, Africa for the World Bank.

Over 250 million people -- half of Africa's population -- are without access to safe drinking water and almost 300 million do not have adequate sanitation. With the current rate of population growth and extension of water and sanitation services, a "business as usual approach" would result in over 500 million without water and sanitation by the year 2020. Much of sub-Saharan Africa is threatened by growing water scarcity and deteriorating water quality, increasing water costs as well as conflicts among users. The human impact -- especially on the poor and most particularly on women and children -- will be unprecedented, as will the environmental impacts in cities where almost half the population live.

Primary areas for collaboration between UNICEF and the World Bank under the memorandum will be in the development and implementation of water, environmental sanitation and hygiene education programmes in villages, small towns and poor urban neighbourhoods and in extending sustainable services to the poor.

This is not the first time that UNICEF and the World Bank have collaborated closely in this area. For example, in Benin, Burkina Faso and Malawi the two organizations have worked together in the preparation and implementation of water and sanitation projects.

The scale of the challenge ahead, the need for innovative national programmes and the complementary nature of the two organizations make collaboration an imperative if there is going to be a serious effort to significantly improve the availability of water, sanitation and hygiene education to those that will not be reached by conventional services in the near future.

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