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African Governments Urged to Spend More on Clean Water

Nearly a third of people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to safe drinking water, the World Water Council said Wednesday, urging governments to contribute adequate amounts of their budgets toward projects aimed at making safe water widely available.

“There is an absolute necessity to increase water security in order to overcome the challenges brought on by climate change and human influence … We need commitment at the highest levels,” the organization’s president, Benedito Braga, said in a statement marking World Water Day.

Africa and Asia are the most affected by scarcity of safe water, with Papua New Guinea, Equatorial Guinea and Angola reporting that clean water is available to less than 50 percent of their populations, the statement said.

Globally, at least 1.8 billion people use a drinking-water source contaminated with feces, and half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas by 2025, according to the World Health Organization.

Scott Wallace / World Bank

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