ADDIS ABABA, July 29 (Xinhua) -- More than 400 million Africans still lack access to basic drinking water, while over 700 million people across the continent remain without safely managed sanitation, according to Claver Gatete, United Nations under-secretary-general and executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
While addressing the 49th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU) on Tuesday in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, Gatete said the situation is undermining health, productivity, food security and economic development of the continent.
Noting that rainfall is becoming less predictable, Gatete said climate-related shocks are already reducing agricultural productivity and costing some African economies as much as 5 percent of their gross domestic product each year.
Highlighting that water sits at the center of every major development challenge confronting Africa today, the executive secretary urged African governments to embrace integrated planning across water, agriculture, energy, climate, industry and urban development.
According to the executive secretary, the responses require stronger domestic resource mobilization, innovative financing instruments, sound public financial management, and stronger domestic and regional capital markets.
Gatete also urged expanding local-currency financing, mobilizing pension and insurance assets, and developing bankable projects to increase Africa's savings and finance its development programs.
The executive secretary recalled that nearly 600 million Africans continue to live without access to electricity, limiting productivity, industrialization and competitiveness.
"We need to accelerate structural transformation, advance industrialization, expand productive capacities, deepen regional integration and mobilize resources at the scale required to deliver both the Sustainable Development Goals and Africa's Agenda 2063," Gatete pointed out.
Highlighting that Africa has abundant renewable energy resources, the world's youngest population and many of the strategic minerals required for the global energy transition, Gatete called for advancing agro-processing, renewable energy technologies, manufacturing and modern services across the continent.
He said Africa's future depends not on pursuing isolated priorities, but on connecting water security, industrialization, climate action, finance and regional integration into a single development agenda.
Held under the AU's 2026 theme, "Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063," the two-day session, which brought African foreign ministers together, is expected to deliberate on key continental priorities, including water security, sanitation, financing, regional integration and sustainable development. ■
