The Southern African Development Community (SADC) joins the rest of the world in commemorating this year’s World Water Day with a call for more investments towards the development of water infrastructure in the region in order to improve assurance of water supply for domestic, industrial, energy and food security.

The SADC region which has a population of about 260 million people is characterized with high levels of water insecurity with close to 100 million people in the region still not having access to safe drinking water and nearly 155 million people not having access to improved sanitation facilities.

SADC Secretariat Senior Programme Officer in the Water Division Mr. Phera Ramoeli says, “as we observe this year’s World Water Day, whose theme is - Water And Food Security, our hope is that the Private Sector, Investment Banks and the Donor Community will be motivated to dedicate more resources towards Water Infrastructure Development so that our region remain food secure and further reduce the devastating impact of Climate Change and Climate Variability”.

Water Infrastructure Development is very critical for making sure that the region’s most vulnerable people can gain access to water supplies of adequate quantity and good quality for their various needs including energy and food security through irrigated agriculture.