An African ministerial council entrusted with the task of setting water policy priorities in the continent said Wednesday that plans to provide water to 30 million extra people a year from 2006 to meet Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) were unrealistic. While it was imperative that Africa achieved the MDGs on water and sanitation set for 2015 to 2025 it was unrealistic to expect that the continent could meet the needs of 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa before 2015 by providing improved water and sanitation to an average of 30 million extra people a year, the council said "A more realistic chance to meet the target (would be )by initially providing water to around 10 million additional people, starting in 2006, and then increasing that annual target and capacity by 20 per cent ever year until 2015," it said. Such "a strategically graduated approach" could achieve the target of providing improved water supply to over 267 million people and improved sanitation to over 292 million people in sub-Saharan Africa between now and 2015, it stated. The recommendations envisage delivering water and sanitation services to around 44 million households in sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2006-2015, starting with a target of around 1.7 million households in 2006. The decisions were made by the 15-nation executive committee of the African Ministers' Council On Water (AMCOW) after daylong deliberations. --SP 2338 Local Time 2038 GMT
