6 March 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican government and its international cooperation partners have agreed to create a common investment fund for the water supply sector, designed to provide a better management of financial resources.
Speaking in Maputo on Wednesday, at the end of a three day meeting between the government, international partners, and other stakeholders in the sector, the National Director of Water, Juliao Alferes, said that with the common fund, all investments will be channelled through the state budget.
"Since the beginning and up until now, most donors have been investing in the water supply sector in an isolated manner, a situation that is set to change in the future", he said. Alferes added that this will not mean centralizing the management of the funds, because the government is to channel the money to the districts.
To this end, the Minister of Public Works, Felicio Zacarias, signed on Wednesday, with Rachel Turner, of the British government's Department for International Development (DFID), who represented the donor community, a Code of Conduct that will lead to the establishment of a Sector Wide Approach (SWAP) for the water sector.
Zacarias said that SWAP is an important mechanism to establish a common vision aiming at reforms in the water sector, particularly in the decentralization of the management of funds.
During the three day meeting, the participants discussed the report on the performance of this sector in 2007, and plans for this year. The meeting also discussed issues related to Water and Sanitation, both in rural and in urban areas, management of water resources, including of international rivers, hydraulic works and related sectors.
"We were happy with the results of the meeting, which show that the major objectives for 2007 were achieved", said Zacarias. "Among these, one can mention the increase of coverage from 43.1 per cent to 48.7 per cent in the rural areas, and from 35 to 40 per cent in the urban areas, and improvement in sanitation, both in rural and urban areas, now covering 39 and 47 per cent of the population respectively".
"Though our analysis is positive, there are still many challenges in this sector. Despite our efforts during the last few years, there are still problems related to collecting, supplying and processing information in this sector. The problem in many cases is the lack of a mechanism to exchange information between the various stakeholders", said the Minister.
For her part, Turner, speaking on behalf of the donors said they were pleased with the progress achieved last year in improving people's access to water. But she added that there is still a long way to go, taking into account that more than half of the people in the rural areas do not yet have access to clean drinking water, and two thirds of them do not have an adequate sanitation system.
"Together with other partners, we are preparing a new programme for the water supply sector. We are prepared to support the SWAP", she said.
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