At the international conference on Water Supply and Sanitation Services in Small Towns and Multi-Village schemes held in Addis Ababa, from 11-15 Jun 2002*, it was heard that almost half of Africans have no access to clean running water. Some 300 million people on the continent also have no access to sanitation facilities. Experts at the conference argued that a massive increase in investment was needed to improve water and sanitation supplies. Concern is also mounting that unless urgent action is taken now, by 2020 some 400 million Africans will lack safe drinking water and about 600 million will be without hygienic sanitation. Jamal Saghir, the director of energy and water at the World Bank, told the conference that the key to addressing the problems was through a public and private partnership. Ethiopia's Minister of Water, Shiferaw Jarso, told his government had been unable to tap the country's massive water reserves due to financial constraints. In Ethiopia, just 13% of the population has access to clean water facilities.

* Organized by The World Bank, the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) and the World Bank Institute (WBI), http://www.wsp.org/english/afr/calendar.html

Source: IRIN, 18 Jun 2002