Africités 4 - Nairobi
session ss26

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World Water Council
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Facilitate the strengthening of local authorities for meeting the water challenges.

 
 

The World Water Council session, entitled “Facilitate the strengthening of local authorities for meeting the water challenges”, was organised in partnership with UN-Habitat and United Cities and Local Governments – Africa (UCLG-A).

The objective of this session was to identify priority actions to be taken by local, national and international actors that will enable and facilitate the strengthening of local authorities to develop and manage water resources and services. Outcomes of the session will be used to build a programme that aim at defining priorities for actions to facilitate the strengthening of local authorities.

The chairperson was Leonard BIHONDO, mayor of Mwanza-Tanzania; the facilitator was Paul Van Hofwegen from the World Water Council, and the Rapporteur was Dr Moh REJDALI, President of Temara Commune.

About 40 participants attended the session, mainly Local Authorities and local government association, but also water utilities and governmental agencies.

The President of the World Water Council, Loïc Fauchon, opened the session by affirming that the more the competence of water is close to the citizen, the better it works. He also insisted, among others, on the necessity:
• to prioritize water at the local level,
• to define legal and regulatory framework to enable Local Government to get adequate access to human and financial resources required to manage water and sanitation services,
• to develop renewable energy sources at the local level to operate water and sanitation facilities,
• to allocate budget for the maintenance and the renewal of water infrastructures.

Mr. Sipho Mosai, Director of Water and Sanitation Services in the City of Cape Town, illustrated the capacity challenge for service development and delivery in South Africa. He highlighted the problem of ageing infrastructure, the staff shortage and the master plan requirements. According to him, it is not a question of money, but of competent and trained personal.

Mariam Yunusa, Manager of the World Urban Forum (UN-Habitat), presented the key issues for strengthening management capacity for service delivery in African towns and cities. Local Authorities are the frontier at which service delivery becomes effective. In Sub-Saharan Africa, several constraints exist:
• the decentralisation is half-hearted and incomplete: responsibilities have been provided to Local Authorities, but not the adequate resources;
•  In some cities, where many Local Authorities can exist (until 50 like in Lagos), there’s a lack of coordination between them: each one has its own plan and strategy;
• Local Authorities are “overgoverned”.

The main things are to negotiate on behalf of Local Authorities with all levels of governance, to give grants to poor Local Authorities, to build bridges between water and sewerage and between NGOs, to guarantee maintenance and training, and to focus on poor population. Ms Yunusa concluded that MDGs will not be reached without involving poor people, and that without legislative framework to protect the Local Authorities, we will not be able to reach poor people.

The last two hours have been devoted to debate with participants about three issues:
• What are the challenges and the requirements?
• What are the constraints?
• What actions should be undertaken and by whom?

The main challenges are the development of political will, financial and human resources, coordination and communication between different levels of government and between local authorities, and adequate, fair and transparent allocation of resources by central government; accountable and transparent expenditure of resources. Providing access to water and sanitation in slums is also crucial, especially since the growing urbanization in Africa. There are lots of conference and talks, but now it’s time to act.

Participants proposed a list of actions which should be undertaken to strengthen Local Authorities and to help them to reach MDGS:
•  Central government should make water as a priority issue and prioritize water in budget,
• The decentralization process must not be a struggle of power, but all actors should complement each other,
• A policy and regulatory framework to enable Local Authorities to get access to adequate resources to develop and manage their water services,
• Local Authorities should be given not only responsibilities and powers, but also adequate financial and human resources, coupled with control over their budgets and accountability mechanisms,
• Local government capacity-building must be strengthened (financial and human resources, training, transfer of knowledge),
• Local Authorities should set very clear objectives financially viable, A framework should be developed to allow water money to be used for water delivery and infrastructure only,
• A network/information system of Local Authorities should be created to inform them on how to get fundings,
• An African Water Council could be created to create a network, share ideas and experiences, and interlink all the association in charge of water in Africa,
• There should be more involvement of the communities (including the poor) more awareness creation, coordination and communication,
• It’s necessary to regularize slums,
• There should be a follow-up of proposals made during Africities,
• Monitoring process should be set,
• All these previous actions must be undertaken in a sustainable way.

All these comments allowed formulating recommendations (cf. Annex) addressed to each type of stake holder: Central government, Local Government and Financing Institutions.







©pS-Eau 2007