“Talk less and implement projects”

By Pelekelo Liswaniso in Maputo, Mozambique

Ministry of Finance and National Planning Permanent Secretary, James Mulungushi has called for fewer workshops and seminars in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) so that money saved was used for programme implementation.

Mr Mulungushi who is in charge of the Economic and Planning Management Division said there should be a reduction in conferences to direct financial resources and time to implementation of national and regional economic plans.

He was speaking on Wednesday when he presented his keynote address to a SADC multi-stakeholder Water Dialogue in the Mozambican capital.

“I think there must be less talking ….we hold too many workshops, seminars and conferences in the region,” Mr Mulungushi said amidst applause from delegates who had convened at the Joachim Chisano Conference Centre.

Mozambique’s Minister of Public Works and Housing Felicio Zacarius, who, earlier opened the meeting, urged the SADC region member states to take water high on their agenda in development plans.

“SADC is endowed with a lot of water resources which we can harness especially to improve our hydropower and it’s critical that this resource is well managed,” the Minister said.

In his presentation under the theme: Watering development in SADC: beyond IWRM concepts and the converted, Mr Mulungushi said governments in the developing countries have a challenge to reduce poverty and realize the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“Key to these challenges is water for food, water for agricultural productivity, water for domestic use, and water for energy and environment. The achievement of these milestones depend on how we manage and use natural resources especially water resources,”

Mr Mulungushi stressed that financial resources should be channelled towards construction of schools or health centres and the improvement of water, a resource, which, he said, cuts across all economic sectors.

“We need to improve our water because it is critical for increased agricultural production and food security, increased mining and industrial production, transport and communication, promotion of tourism and recreation as well as hydropower generation”

For social development, water is key in the improvement of people’s well being through accessibility to clean and safe water, Mr Mulungushi said, adding that water was not an engineering equation. It affects everybody and is a cross-cutting issue like gender and environment.

To yield maximum benefits programmes outlined in the 5th National Development Plan (FNDP) require Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), as an approach for inter-sectoral coordination.

There is need therefore to have an integrated and coordinated implementation framework among sectors to avoid duplication and overlap and to achieve maximum impact.

The SADC region, he said has a wide wealth of plans and projects that require implementation and he expressed happiness that the Zambian economy has been growing over the past five years.

Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates improved from 2 percent in 1999 to over 5% in 2005. while inflation, interest rates and poverty levels have also declined. To build on this success, however demands more economic growth, wealth creation and further poverty reduction in the 5th National Development Plan.

Mr Mulungushi paid tribute to Global Water Partnership Southern Africa and the Zambia Water Partnership for their critical role in ensuring that the priority interventions in the water and sanitation are included in national planning process.

Earlier, SADC Director of Infrastructure and Services, Remigious Makumbe said although the SADC is home to 15 shared watercourses, the region remains water deficient resulting in a mismatch between water availability and water demand.

“Water scarcity continues to cause region-wide negative impact on human populations and today not one SADC member state demonstrates a score higher than 61.9 on the Water Poverty Index. More than half of the Sub-Saharan population lack access to safe water while, more than 40 percent lack adequate sanitation,”