YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Parliaments in sub-Saharan Africa have established a framework that will see a rapid implementation of climate change policies in their different countries into practical ground actions.
The peoples’ representatives through the Pan African Parliamentarians’ Network on Climate Change, known with French acronym as REPACC say they are now set to bridge policy and actions on the ground that have so far lagged behind in visible climate change projects and infrastructure.
Even with the existence of climate change policies that continue to stay on paper and the creation of institutions that have continued to lay fallow, little or no actions are visible on the ground for most countries in sub-saran Africa, experts say.
“ It is time for action to move climate change challenges in Africa to a new level with adapted infrastructures and skills that will help find lasting solution,” says Cavaye Djibril, House Speaker of the National Assembly in Cameroon.
He said the countries in Africa,most of who submitted their NDCs and signed the Paris Agreement(to quantify climate protection goal) lack the necessary expertise to effect national measures and projects to make climate finance available for the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
African Parliamentarians say they have now got the backing of the Climate Policy and Energy Security Programme of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Germany with the training of the required expertise to formulate , prepare, supervise the implementation of projects to help their different countries adapt to climate impacts.
To that effect, a cooperation agreement was signed in Yaounde on March 27, between the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Pan African Parliamentarians’ Network on Climate Change to help fast-track measures needed to bridge climate policies into action in the different countries, to speed up the emergence of body of knowledge on climate and the relevant legislation and to manifest the role of parliamentarians in African climate change responses in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, globally, regionally and locally.
According to the President of the Permanent Executive Committee of the Pan African Parliamentarian Network on Climate Change (PAPNCC), Cameroonian born, Hon. Awudu Mbaya Cyprian, the backing of the German Konrad Foundation now gives African law makers the claws to better push climate policies to action.
“The Pan African Parliament for Climate Change will hence be better armed for actions that will bring m the much expected solutions to climate change challenges,” Awudu said.
Professor Olivier Ruppel, resident representative and director, climate policy and energy programme of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung said technical expertise, financial support with help in the infrastructure development and international cooperation needed by African countries to implement climate change projects on the ground.
Cameroon created the Cameroon Councils against Climate Change, National Observatory on Climate Change in 2011 aimed at monitoring the effects of climate change on people, agriculture and ecosystems, and guiding work on climate action.
Other policy actions have since followed like the creation of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction under the ministry of territorial administration, becoming a member of COMIFAC and submitting a national REED+ plan in 2013 etc. But these have not succeeded to hold the line of climate disasters in the country, officials noted.
Like in Cameroon, Parliamentarians in the continent believe with the active involvement of law makers and support from their new partner, the necessary actions including relevant legislation will bring a lasting solution to climate change impacts in the country in particular and sub-saharan Africa in general.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Parliaments in sub-Saharan Africa have established a framework that will see a rapid implementation of climate change policies in their different countries into practical ground actions.
The peoples’ representatives through the Pan African Parliamentarians’ Network on Climate Change, known with French acronym as REPACC say they are now set to bridge policy and actions on the ground that have so far lagged behind in visible climate change projects and infrastructure.
Even with the existence of climate change policies that continue to stay on paper and the creation of institutions that have continued to lay fallow, little or no actions are visible on the ground for most countries in sub-saran Africa, experts say.
“ It is time for action to move climate change challenges in Africa to a new level with adapted infrastructures and skills that will help find lasting solution,” says Cavaye Djibril, House Speaker of the National Assembly in Cameroon.
He said the countries in Africa,most of who submitted their NDCs and signed the Paris Agreement(to quantify climate protection goal) lack the necessary expertise to effect national measures and projects to make climate finance available for the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
African Parliamentarians say they have now got the backing of the Climate Policy and Energy Security Programme of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Germany with the training of the required expertise to formulate , prepare, supervise the implementation of projects to help their different countries adapt to climate impacts.
To that effect, a cooperation agreement was signed in Yaounde on March 27, between the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Pan African Parliamentarians’ Network on Climate Change to help fast-track measures needed to bridge climate policies into action in the different countries, to speed up the emergence of body of knowledge on climate and the relevant legislation and to manifest the role of parliamentarians in African climate change responses in the implementation of the Paris Agreement, globally, regionally and locally.
According to the President of the Permanent Executive Committee of the Pan African Parliamentarian Network on Climate Change (PAPNCC), Cameroonian born, Hon. Awudu Mbaya Cyprian, the backing of the German Konrad Foundation now gives African law makers the claws to better push climate policies to action.
“The Pan African Parliament for Climate Change will hence be better armed for actions that will bring m the much expected solutions to climate change challenges,” Awudu said.
Professor Olivier Ruppel, resident representative and director, climate policy and energy programme of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung said technical expertise, financial support with help in the infrastructure development and international cooperation needed by African countries to implement climate change projects on the ground.
Cameroon created the Cameroon Councils against Climate Change, National Observatory on Climate Change in 2011 aimed at monitoring the effects of climate change on people, agriculture and ecosystems, and guiding work on climate action.
Other policy actions have since followed like the creation of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction under the ministry of territorial administration, becoming a member of COMIFAC and submitting a national REED+ plan in 2013 etc. But these have not succeeded to hold the line of climate disasters in the country, officials noted.
Like in Cameroon, Parliamentarians in the continent believe with the active involvement of law makers and support from their new partner, the necessary actions including relevant legislation will bring a lasting solution to climate change impacts in the country in particular and sub-saharan Africa in general.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Women in Cameroon’s capital of Yaounde who deal in water dependent businesses and school going girls are paying a heavy cost, losing out in their business and sacrificing school hours due to harsh weather conditions.
Prolonged absence of rain, which experts attribute to climate change and a swelling urban population in the nation’s capital has caused scarcity of portable water, significantly affecting water related business activities that are a major source of income for mostly women as well as well as impaction on the education of the girl children who sacrifice school hours, navigating long distances in search of scarce drinking water.
College and primary school authorities in the nation’s capital say water scarcity brings its own set of complications on the education of girl children who traditionally accompany their mothers early in the morning to far distances in search of drinking water that has become scarce because of prolonged drought. As a consequence many do either come very late to school or register regular absences that impact on their studies.
“Girls are notorious for coming late to school with a record high absentee rate especially during the dry season periods. We found out this is the result of their early morning duty to accompany their mothers in search of scarce drinking water,” says Moka Charles, Principal of Esperance Bilingual secondary school in Yaounde.
Women who run water dependent businesses or economic activity like restaurant, local beer production, laundry services etc in the capital also attest that they suffer a steep decline in their income during the water crisis due total absence or lateness in accessing portable water.
“ We are obliged to travel long distances in search of water costing us time and money. This reduces our income because we prepare our food late and so lose most of our customers,” attest Monique Nzogo who runs a restaurant at Obili, a neighbourhood in Yaounde.
On the occasion of the celebration of the 2017 World Water Day in Yaounde, school authorities and women involved in water related economic activities have called on government to invest in waste water recycling projects as solution pathway to the crisis.
In line with the theme of this year’s celebrations 'Water and Wastewater’, experts say investing in the safe collection, treatment, transportation, and re-use of waste water can provide huge opportunities to improve the quality of life of the poor in urban areas like the city of Yaounde.
Women activists and business groups in the nation’s capital are calling on the government to make potable water accessible to them in order to reduce the pain and brunt they bear in accessing water, as well as to check the spread of water-borne diseases and related illnesses threatening lives and livelihood due to scarcity.
“ There is an urgent need for government and other stakeholders to take interest in investing in waste water recycling especially during prolonged water scarcity periods . This will greatly help in reducing the water shortage gap in Yaounde,” says Alice Eko vice president of the Mendong Market Vegetable Womens group in Yaounde.
The women say acute water scarcity has become a way of life, so much so that money spent in purchasing processed bottle water for drinking can be equated with major expenses like house rents and education.
The population of Yaounde has also increased in the last ten years to over 3.5 million according to government statistics. Residents need a daily supply of about 300,000 cubic meters of pipe-borne water but barely 35 percent of it is supplied. Poor residents have thus resorted to unsafe sources to get the precious liquid exposing them to water related diseases, experts say.
Cameroon government says it plans to increase Yaounde’s water supply to 500,000 cubic meters in two years by tapping into the River Sanaga where most of the waste water from the city empties itself. The move should increase potable water supply from more than 30 percent to 60 percent of the population, according to the minister of water and energy, Basil Atangana Kouna.
Government is also inviting the private sector in a partnership collaboration in waste water management to ensure sustainability of the resource in cities.
According to a report by Jennifer Blanke, Vice-President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development, AfDB on the occasion of the celebration of the 2017 World water day, the urban population of Africa is projected to reach 654 million by 2030 up from 320 million people in 2010. Wastewater management infrastructure in urban areas is largely insufficient and investment is not keeping pace with rapid urbanization. The annual global shortfall in funds (between 2002 and 2025) for municipal wastewater treatment is estimated at US $56 billion.
“Climate change, slow uptake of innovation and technologies and limited capacities of institutions further exacerbate the problem. If urban sanitation challenges are not tackled urgently, it will put urban residents, especially 200 million inhabitants of marginalized and informal settlements at risk of contracting cholera, dysentery, typhoid, polio, and other waterborne diseases,” the report said.
DURBAN, South Africa (PAMACC News) - Arising from the 2017 World Water Day Celebrations and the Global Launch of the UN World Water Development Report 2017 entitled: “Wastewater: The Untapped Resource" which ended yesterday in Durban, the Republic of South Africa, water and sanitation ministers from across Africa have adopted the Durban Political Declaration for accelerating the implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
The adoption of the political declaration which coincided with the announcement of the “Call for Action” towards the implementation of the SDGs with particular emphasis on Goal-6 (Water and Sanitation) was graced by members of the High Level Panel on Water (HLPW), leaders of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), Inter-sectoral Ministers, UNESCO Special Envoy for Water in Africa, UN Agencies, private sector and civil society leaders.
The Durban Political Declaration agreed by all Political leaders mirrors the key principles, pillars and vision of the African Union, AMCOW, and HLPW Action Plan in support of the implementation of the SDGs. The Political Declaration seeks to encourage the acceleration plans and programmes and commit to the rollout of the Action Plan initiative.
In this latest declaration which recalled the African Union Heads of State and Government decision on the implementation of the July 2008 Assembly Declaration on the Sharm El Sheikh Commitments for Accelerating the Achievement of Water and Sanitation Goals in Africa; the eThekwini Declaration on Sanitation and its accompanying actions adopted in South Africa in February 2008; as well as the recent Dar Es Salaam Roadmap for Achieving the N’gor Commitments on Water Security and Sanitation in Africa adopted in Dar Es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania 26th July 2016, water, sanitation and inter-sectoral ministers from the five Africa sub-regions resolved and committed themselves to supporting and strengthening the implementation of SDG-6 and related goals by ensuring coherence in the implementation of our policies in line with the HLPW Action Plan.
The ministers also declared their commitment to supporting and sharing the best Practice Models initiatives championed by regional leaders who serve as members of the High Level Panel on Water, notably Presidents of Senegal, South Africa and Mauritius. This, according to the declaration, is in line with the Africa Water Vision 2025 which envisages “an Africa where there is an equitable and sustainable use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation, socio-economic development, regional cooperation, and the environment”.
Recalling the aspirations and commitments espoused in Africa’s Agenda 2063 which envisions the optimal use of Africa’s resources towards ensuring positive socio-economic transformation; the 2004 Sirte Declaration on integrated development of Agriculture and Water in Africa; and the 2008 Tunis Declaration on Accelerating Water Security for Africa’s Socio-Economic Development; the High Level Political Declaration commits African governments to increasing budgetary allocation to match the central role of water security and sanitation in Agenda 2030 and in line with the Sharm El Sheikh declaration.
To drive this, the ministers urged the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW, African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Union Commission (AUC) in collaboration with development partners, to convene meetings of Ministers responsible for Water, and Finance to develop and implement appropriate financing policies and models for water and sanitation.
The declaration further requests the African Heads of States and Government through the AUC to prioritize Water and Sanitation as essential ingredients to Africa’s Economic Development and Growth. On this note, the ministers advocated the designation of AMCOW as the Technical Advisory Committee within AU Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment to champion the implementation and monitoring of SDG-6 at the political level.
African ministers and members of the High Level Panel on Water welcomed AMCOW’s launch of the Pan-African web-based monitoring and reporting system for water and sanitation sector which is linked to the global monitoring processes and called for efforts to strengthen and institutionalize harmonised monitoring and reporting system at member states, sub-regional, and basin levels to report on actions taken to implement these High Level Declarations including Political Declaration commitments.
