The World Bank has reaffirmed its commitment to support water supply in Mozambique, according to the Minister of Public Works, Carlos Mesquita, after a visit to World Bank headquarters in Washington.

Cited in the newssheet "Mediafax" on 23 March, Mesquita said that a Project for Urban Water Security is being finalised. It will increase access to water and improve the capacity to provide water services in selected cities in southern Mozambique. The project has an overall cost of US$250 million.

Mesquita met with the World Bank's Vice President for Eastern and Southern Africa, Victoria Kwakwa, and other senior bank staff, with whom he discussed the current stage of World Bank operations in his sector.

According to sources on Mesquita's delegation, the Minister appealed to the Bank's leadership "to be more flexible and to ponder some of its decisions which to some extent end up delaying project implementation". He urged continued World Bank support in financing water supply and storage infrastructures.

Mesquita also attended the United Nations Summit on Water. The UN has warned of worsening shortages of drinking water across the globe, linked to climate change which has boosted the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.

The international NGO WaterAid has warned of a likely increase in water-borne diseases, including cholera. "A perfect storm of climate change, conflicts and financial crises, together with migrations, has created an unprecedented global cholera crisis", WaterAid said. The deteriorating situation "is provoking outbreaks on a large scale in countries which, for many years, had been free of this highly contagious disease".