Luanda — The improvement of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in Angola requires an annual investment of about 10 percent of the General State Budget (OGE).
This estimate, which aims at equity and sustainability in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services, is expressed in a UNICEF project to which ANGOP had access, whose public presentation is scheduled for March 28 in Luanda, as part of the celebration of the World Water Day.
The draft sets out this estimate based on the "Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD), which states that African countries should allocate 3.5% of their Gross Domestic Product to the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene sector to achieve equity and sustainability in these services.
Recommendations
For the efficiency of the ASH, UNICEF recommends that Angola develop and approve a National Strategic Plan for Water Supply and Sanitation, future-oriented financial instruments that ensure the alignment and involvement of stakeholders in decision-making.
To improve the sustainability of the sector, WASH also suggests creating additional sources of finance, including private sector investment, and increasing sanitation standards, coverage and budget.
To increase the effectiveness of public spending in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene sector, it further advises investing in administrative modernisation and operational digitisation, improved performance monitoring and results-based budgeting, as well as continued accountability and transparency of the national budget.
Obstacles
The project presents obstacles linked to regulation and strategy, precisely the "lack of connection between priorities and financial needs, even though national plans exist" and defined goals are not directed transparently at specific institutions".
Still on the obstacles linked to regulation and strategy, the project indicates that "future funding is very unpredictable, with no long-term funds for the sector".
It points to the existence of a clear delimitation of roles, responsibilities and relationships between institutions, as well as the need to create clear and transparent mechanisms for effective coordination and implementation of the sector.
On the other hand, the project, which resulted from an analysis, concluded that the budget for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Angola is mainly made up of "Water Supply", which in 2022 consumed 73.8% of the total foreseen, and this year it is foreseen 74.1%.
Basic sanitation comes next with 26.2 percent in 2022 and forecasts 25.7 percent for 2023, a significant increase compared to 2021, which was 12 percent.
The budget includes "Water Supply", "Sewerage", "Waste Management", and "Wastewater Management", however, since 2020, these last two items have not been included in the State Budget.
The money for WASH is mostly administered by the ministerial departments of Environment and Energy and Water.
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The annual growth of the Angolan population is estimated at 3% (34 million inhabitants), another detail highlighted in the analysis as a tremendous challenge for water supply, sanitation and hygiene infrastructures throughout the country.
Objectives
The UNICEF project consisted of conducting analysis of the challenges facing the water, sanitation and hygiene sector in Angola through a Public Finance perspective.
It aimed to understand how government funds have been allocated to the sector over the past 10 years to provide a tool to improve budget allocation and a mechanism through which stakeholders in the sector can better understand national spending.
