Water, Sanitation: High on Development Agenda

By PELEKELO LISWANISO

THE year 2006 is gone but not forgotten. And as the nation braces itself for new challenges in the New Year, the next five days will go down in the annals of history as special days on the Zambian calendar because they will mark a major turning point on how water resources in the country can help improve lives of the more than 12 million people, majority of whom are poor in rural and peril-urban areas.

Government in collaboration with the Zambia Water Partnership (ZWP) is organising a national forum from January 7 to 11 for stakeholders in the water sector in a bid to improve water supply services and sanitation in the country.

The forum, which has been dubbed as The National Workshop for Directors and Sanitation Related Government Ministries and Heads of Planning, has been slated for Ndola’s Mukuba Hotel.

The organisation of the workshop arises from the fact that water resources development and management is one of the key sectors in the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) in fostering the country’s social economic development.

Announcing this before the close of last year, Secretary to the Treasury, Evans Chibiliti said the workshop would kick start the water sector and provincial consultations as well as mark the start of the implementation of interventions outlined in the FNDP.

The strategic focus of the FNDP is socio-economic infrastructure and human resource development aimed at promoting wealth creation through sustained broad-based economic growth and poverty reduction.

The workshop is envisaged to introduce the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and Water Efficiency Plan.

IWRM is a process, which promotes the coordinated development and management of water and land resources to maximise the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.

The IWRM and Water Efficiency Plan has been taken in Zambia as a road map to guide the country from fragmented ways of developing, managing and using water resources. It helps the government to address key water problems such as water for food, water for agricultural productivity, water for domestic use and water for energy and environment.

It is a key milestone for poverty reduction and the realisation of water related 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The plan is cross-sectoral and explains the responsibility of water related government agencies such as the Ministries of Energy and Water Development, Agriculture and Cooperatives, Health, Gender, Local Government and Housing, Environment, Tourism and Natural Resources, Finance and National Planning.

The plan outlines the actions and resources required to manage, use and develop water resources in an integrated manner to maximise the socio-economic benefits and improve people’s livelihoods now and in the future.

“In addition, it is expected that the workshop will identify key challenges and opportunities in the water sector and priority areas to be considered in the 2007-2009 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and in the 2007 budget,” Mr. Chibiliti said in invitation letters to participants.

In the medium-term, Government’s objectives are aimed at preserving and consolidating the macroeconomic stability achieved in the last few years.

The importance of inter-sectoral coordination and integration in the implementation of programmes in the water related sectors in the FNDP would also be highlighted. Benefits of IWRM will be identified and strategies for implementation mapped out.

The FNDP was developed through a consultative process involving major stakeholders including the civil society, cooperating partners and the private sector. The process involved considerable input from stakeholders through the District and Provincial Development Coordination Committees and at the central level, through the Sector Advisory Groups (SAGs).

Some of the priority sectors in the FNDP include water and sanitation, public safety, education and health, agriculture and infrastructure. With regards to water and sanitation, government has also recognised the role it plays in the improvement of people’s well being as it is key in the operations of almost all sectors.

Among the speakers scheduled to make presentations include ZWP chairman, Mr. Osward Chanda, who is also the National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NAWSCO) director, Professor Imasiku Nyambe, a geologist at the University of Zambia.

Others are director of Water Affairs, Mr Adam Hussein and Mr. Lubinda Aongola of the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Kenneth Chense of Nkana Water and Sewerage Company, James Mulungushi, Ministry of Finance and National Planning, Peter Lubambo, Ministry of Local Government and Housing, Mr. Benny Chuundu, Ministry of Energy and Water Development, Mr. Rees Mwasambili, Ministry of Local Government and Housing and many other water specialists.

According to information released by the ZWP secretariat at the University of Zambia, government has committed itself to meeting the international goals of providing water and sanitation facilities to all citizens in the country.

It is in view of this background that has prompted the government to place water and sanitation as one of the priority sectors in the FNDP. This is also in line with Zambia’s aspiration for clean and safe water supply and sanitation envisaged in the vision 2030.

According to information available to the Daily Mail, the FNDP has been finalised and its implementation will require substantial resources.

A look at the programmes in the NDP shows that the lists of programmes are sectoral with each sector outlining its own implementation mechanism.

Similarly, a number of priority programmes have been identified in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework relating to water resources management, water supply and sanitation as well as irrigation development.

Therefore, for the implementation of these programmes to yield maximum benefits, it has long been recognised that IWRM is the approach for intersectoral coordination.

“There will be need to have an integrated and coordinated implementation framework among sectors to avoid duplication and overlap and to achieve maximum impact,” explained, Mr Chimwanga Maseka, the ZWP Project Manager for the Partnership for Africa’s Water Development (PAWD) project.

Mr Maseka observed in an interview that the government through the Ministry of Energy and Water Development, with facilitation from ZWP, has been developing a long term implementation framework on IWRM plan for water related sectors linked to the national long term vision (2030).

“An IWRM plan for water related sectors is in line with international developments for improving planning and sectoral coordination among sectors,” he said.

The workshop comes in the wake of resolutions made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2000 where water was identified as a key element in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This led to the establishment of a target “for countries to establish IWRM and water efficiency plans by 2005”.

The international community pledged to support countries in meeting this target, which is a key element in achieving the MDGs of halving by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation services.

In 2004 the Ministry of Energy and Water Development initiated the process of preparation of a national IWRM and Water Efficiency plan for the sustainable management of water resources in Zambia and this was facilitated by ZWP through the PAWD project.

It is important, therefore, that the country takes cognisance of the fact that sustainable water development and management is a critical component of development for all societies and Zambia cannot afford to be left behind in planning for the future. This meeting in Ndola coming at the very beginning of the year 2007 is, therefore, very timely indeed.