Speech by the Prince of Orange, Chair of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB), to the Assembly of the African Union, Sharm El-Sheikh, 30 June 2008
Your Excellency, President Kikwete, Chairperson of the African Union
Your Excellency, Mr Mubarak, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt,
Your Excellency, Dr Ping, Chairperson of the African Union Commission,
Distinguished Heads of State and Government,
Excellencies, Ministers, Ambassadors, Commissioners and Members of the African Union Commission,
Ladies and gentlemen,
'At last, they are on the right path!' said my father, the late Prince Claus of the Netherlands. It was July 2002, and he had just heard from his sickbed of the birth of your African Union in Durban.
A united Africa was his dream, the renaissance of the continent he loved so much. My father grew up in Africa, worked for Africa, defended Africa. He loved Africa, believed in Africa, dreamed of Africa. Africa was in my father's genes. And he passed on those genes and his passion for Africa to his children. He also understood better than anyone that without the ability to manage water, further development remains a pipe dream.
Water and sanitation are the essential ingredients for a life of dignity and for sustainable development and can only be achieved in a stable political environment that respects rule of law and fundamental freedoms. As chair of the United Nations Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation - UNSGAB for short - I have been given the opportunity to take meaningful action on these issues and at the same time to put my father's lessons about Africa and development strategies in general into practice.
Standing here, I realise that many of you must have known my father. Everyone who knew him personally understood how passionate and enthusiastic he was about Africa, and how committed he was. They will know exactly what I meant when I described him at the start of this speech.
Ladies and gentlemen,
'Africa is running against time.' That is what the former Chairperson of the African Union, His Excellency President Kufuor, stressed again last year. And this is most certainly true when it comes to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
The latest figures of the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme show that, of nearly one billion people in Africa, only around 602 million currently use an improved drinking water source, and no more than 360 million use an improved sanitation facility.
To meet the MDG drinking water target for Africa, 33 million people a year will have to gain access to an improved drinking water source. At the current rate of only 15 million new users a year, it is obvious that we are not going to meet this target. We need to more than double our efforts.
But to meet the MDG sanitation target, the number of people using improved sanitation will need to rise far more. At the current rate of 10 million new users a year, it will take an enormous effort to bring the number to 45 million people a year - almost a five-fold increase on current levels.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Africa is clearly not on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal target for drinking water and sanitation. We must not allow Africa to reach the point where it faces a continuous, endemic water and sanitation crisis that debilitates and kills huge numbers of people, threatens the health of the workforce, stands in the way of economic growth, and limits access to education and therefore life opportunities.
Every year, an estimated one million Africans die from diseases related to poor sanitation and hygiene, and unsafe drinking water. Health, dignity and development are at stake - for Africa as a whole, and for millions of individual Africans.
In this context I would like to quote the words of one of the greatest protagonists for Africa, the most respectable Kofi Annan, who once said that "we shall not finally defeat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria or any of the other infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water, sanitation and basic health care""
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Africa is indeed running against time, and for many, time is running out. So urgent action is needed to speed up efforts on water and sanitation. Many people - TOO MANY - live in poverty and suffer from hunger because they have no access to water and sanitation.
And it is these people, society's most vulnerable, and children especially, whom the effects of the current food and energy crisis, the impact of climate change, and the negative aspects of biofuel production will hit hardest.
Not a day goes by that we do not see the impact of the mounting food crisis. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon recently issued a sober warning that the global food crisis, with rapidly rising prices sparking riots and threatening many countries with the prospect of hunger, could have grave implications for the future. As he pointed out, 'If not handled properly, this crisis could result in a cascade of others, and become a multidimensional problem affecting economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world.'
The global community will have to pull together to meet this enormous challenge. I should like to invite you now to distance yourself from the everyday practical realities, and to look at all these problems taking a helicopter view. The conclusion is unavoidable. Water is the common factor. The solution to many problems is basically a matter of good water management, not only within your own country's borders, but also - and especially - at river basin level.
We are faced with the dilemma of competing claims for food and fuel, and also for water. Let us keep in mind that agriculture is the main consumer of our water resources. Water security goes hand in hand with food and energy security. Water is one of the main keys to sustainable development in Africa. And Integrated Water Resources Management is the mechanism that will make the key turn.
Let me give you an example. Ninety four per cent of Africa's hydropower potential goes unused. This is your energy. And in harnessing it, you will create enough storage capacity to multiply your irrigated farmland many times over. This is your food.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Together we want and need to support the people of Africa. To help them escape the debilitating, dehumanising effects of mass poverty, to give them a future and to advance the development of the African continent.
Access to water and sanitation is a prerequisite. If the political will is there, it can be done.
In the distant past you yourselves may have experienced what it is like to have no access to a sustainable source of drinking water and, above all, to adequate sanitation. I myself have never had that misfortune. But as a pilot for AMREF Flying Doctors in East Africa, I saw for myself how crucial this form of preventive health care is.
I don't simply mean that it makes financial sense, although preventive health care is ten times cheaper than curative care. People suffering from illnesses related to poor sanitation occupy Fifty percent of hospital beds in Sub-Saharan Africa. And these illnesses account for a massive 12% of the health budget. Seen in this light, sustainable access to adequate sanitation is the best conceivable preventive care. Even if you only consider the work and school days that would no longer be lost to illness, adequate sanitation could lead to a growth of between three and five per cent of your GDP. This is an argument to take home from this conference with you.
Yet perhaps you, like many others, will find it difficult to go home and speak passionately about sanitation and related subjects like human faeces. I would urge you to personally help break through the deadly taboo that surrounds this subject. That is why UNSGAB advocated declaring 2008 the International Year of Sanitation. We must overcome our discomfort at talking about toilets and personal hygiene. We need the words, the courage and the dedicated resources to do what we must to make a difference.
In the light of all of this, it will come as no surprise that I was delighted to note that some distinguished African Heads of State and Government took the initiative to have themselves photographed with a toilet. Their courage symbolised the step forward Africa needs to take. I can only invite you all to follow their lead, and break through the sanitation taboo. Let us call a spade a spade and a toilet a toilet. It worked in many countries for HIV/AIDS, so why shouldn't it work for sanitation too?
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am pleased to see that the development of Africa, and the role played by water and sanitation, has now gained a prominent place on the international agenda. Worldwide certainly, but especially in Africa itself.
The éThekwini Declaration and the AfricaSan Action Plan 2008-2010, and particularly this dedicated Summit of Heads of State and Government, are irrefutable evidence of the growing political recognition of the importance of water and sanitation for the socioeconomic development of Africa.
Distinguished Heads of State and Government,
As I pointed out earlier, every year between now and 2015, Africa will need to provide at least 33 million new people with access to drinking water and 45 million with access to proper sanitation facilities if we are to meet MDG 7, target 10. It can be done. But we need to start right now, not tomorrow. And we need to step up our efforts considerably.
Today, we have reached a unique milestone. Never before have African Heads of State and Government dedicated an AU summit to the subject of water and sanitation. My congratulations! Your decisions today will, to a large extent, set the water and sanitation agenda for Africa for the next decade at least.
By adopting the Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration on Water and Sanitation at this Summit, you will underscore the importance of safe drinking water and sanitation and show your commitment to dedicated action.
Agreement on, and implementation of, this Declaration will have a great impact on the economic and social development of your countries and on the health of your people. The Declaration rightly underscores the importance of reviewing water and sanitation policies and programmes, enabling institutions and people at local level to do the necessary work. And it highlights the need to significantly increase domestic financial investment.
I will not ask you to make new financial commitments in terms of percentages of GDP. A few weeks ago, one of your ministers of finance explained to me that all these individual commitments added up to more than his country's entire national budget.
But I do hope that it will be possible to set up national budget lines for water and sanitation, and to earmark financial resources for implementing national and regional water and sanitation development initiatives. I call upon you, and your ministers of finance and water, to develop appropriate investment plans, financial instruments and markets to facilitate further investment in the water and sanitation sector.
Because investing in water and sanitation pays dividends. Every dollar you invest contributes to at least five other MDGs and generates nine dollars' worth of productive activity.
With this Declaration, you will be sending a clear message to the G8 Heads of State and Government who will be meeting in Japan in two weeks' time, and to the UN High Level Meetings on the MDGs, which will be held in New York in September, that water and sanitation are a top priority in Africa. That the African Heads of State and Government are ready to do whatever is necessary. And that your dedication today will result in active implementation and tangible results tomorrow.
For my part, I will do my utmost to ensure that international development partners respond generously to your Sharm El-Sheikh initiative. The dream we share is water and sanitation for all. Let us make it come true.
Thank you.