Brussels, 09/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 12 March, in Marseilles, at the opening of the sixth World Water Forum (12-17 March), European Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs will present the results of the European Water Initiative which has helped to improve access to water across the world, and to put water at the heart of development policies. In total, European action has already allowed over 32 million people to have access to drinking water, and 9 million to benefit from sanitation.
The tenth anniversary of the initiative, launched in 2012 during the UN summit on sustainable development, coincides with the celebration of an achievement by the international community: the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on sustainable access to water five years before the 2015 deadline. The 2012 report on drinking water and sanitation services of the WTO/UNICEF joint programme highlights that, by the end of 2010, 89% of the world's population, i.e. 6.1 billion people, had access to a source of drinking water (the objective fixed being 88% for 2015). The other MDG objective concerning water - access to sanitation - nonetheless lags behind (only 63% compared with the 75% objective). The EU will therefore be stepping up its effort to help this to be reached within three years. It will also continue to support international cooperation and promote innovative approaches which strengthen the link between water and other sectors such as agriculture and energy.
On Friday, ahead of the international event organised every three years since 1997, the commissioner said: “Providing access to water and better managing this scarce resource helps us to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development. I am pleased to see that, also thanks to strong EU support, we have managed to achieve one of the first MDGs. However, much work remains to be done as still more than 3,000 children die every day because they drink dirty water. We will continue our efforts on the water-related MDGs, building on the achievements of the EU Water Initiative so far.”
The EU-ACP Water Facility created in 2004 is one of the achievements of the European Water Initiative. Financed by the European Development Fund (EDF), this instrument has already allocated €700 million to projects in the water and sanitation sectors within the 79 countries of the Horn of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) linked to the EU by the Cotonou Agreement. If one adds the other European programmes for water and sanitation, some €3 billion were invested in the sector between 2003 and 2010, i.e. three times that in favour of water. Throughout the world, some 780 million people have still no access to drinking water, 330 million of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa. In its “Agenda for Change” establishing the renovated framework for EU development policy as of 2013, the Commission underlines that the new policies must reduce inequalities and give the poor better access to land, water and energy without harming the environment. (AN/transl.jl)