African Ministers Council on Water Summit put water at the top of the continent's agenda

A one-week summit of the African Ministers Council on Water in Johannesburg last week ended with a declaration calling for strengthening and scaling up of existing initiatives and refinement of strategies.

The ministers attending acknowledged the many commitments and initiatives aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the 2025 African Water Vision target for water and sanitation.

The meeting took place concurrently with the Second Africa Water conference, in Midrand, which aimed to consolidate the continent's position ahead of the climate change meeting in Copenhagen in early December. The conference aimed to find solutions to transboundary water management and voiced concerns about climate change impacts on the continent.

Several issues emerged from the conference, titled Fostering development in an era of economic crisis. The most dominant was a consensus that it would be possible for African countries to develop and grow even in times of crisis if they could achieve the necessary political will to refocus their development trajectories. The conference pointed to a number of issues that affect the continent's development including climate and biodiversity, a weak private sector, population pressure, lack of infrastructure, underdeveloped financial systems, weak human capacity and poor governance.