Southern Africa governments are not keeping their promises on water and sanitation, a new report reveals. As a result, 13 Southern African countries will miss one or both of the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for water and sanitation.
WaterAid’s report titled From promise to reality calls for a further US$3.6 billion a year in investments to get the region back on track. “While funding can come from several different sources, including primarily from households, government and Official Development Assistance (ODA), the scarcity of resources in the domestic economy mean that it is unlikely that real progress will be achieved without substantial external support,” says the report. It calls on governments to draw more revenue from the continent’s immense natural resource wealth Robert Kampala, WaterAid’s Head of Region for Southern Africa, says Southern African governments must meet their past promises on water and sanitation and, together with donors, must invest at the levels needed to put an end to the crisis. “That most [countries] are currently set to fail on one or both targets demonstrates all too vividly the lack of priority governments in the region are placing on these basic services.”While progress is being made in bringing water and sanitation to the Southern African population, the challenges remain very significant. According to the report, eight of the 15 Southern African countries are off-track for the water MDG target while 12 are off-track for the sanitation target. The Seychelles and Botswana are the only countries on track for both targets.Kampala says the two countries that are on track are proof that it can be done.
The report points out that there is correlation between the wealth and income of the countries and the level of access to water and sanitation. For example, Angola, Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles and South Africa are all upper middle income economies and have the highest levels of access.However, even for countries with higher access levels, the poorest sections of society are often left behind, and equity and inclusion issues remain critical. It is predicted that, at current rates of progress, over 40 million people in Southern Africa will not get safe water by 2015 as promised, while another 73 million will go without sanitation. This is because of a lack of money going into these services.| Country | MDG water target | MDG sanitation target |
| Angola | Off-track | On-track |
| Botswana | Near universal | On-track |
| DR Congo | Off-track | Off-track |
| Lesotho | Off-track | Off-track |
| Madagascar | Off-track | Off-track |
| Malawi | On-track | Off-track |
| Mauritius | Near universal | Off-track |
| Mozambique | Off-track | Off-track |
| Namibia | On-track | Off-track |
| Seychelles | Near universal | Near universal |
| South Africa | On-track | Off-track |
| Swaziland | On-track | Off-track |
| Tanzania | Off-track | Off-track |
| Zambia | Off-track | Off-track |
| Zimbabwe | Off-track | Off-track |
