afrol News, 30 July - The Angolan government will get support from the UN system to achieve the universal access to water to boost health and curb poverty.

Under the “Water for All” scheme – also known as the Joint UN Programme on Water and Sanitation – that was launched last week in the capital, Luanda, Angola has committed to providing water for 80 percent of urban and 50 percent of rural dwellers by 2012, with targets raised to 100 percent and 80 percent, respectively, by 2020.

The multi-year programme is a joint initiative of the government, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) and the non-governmental organisation Institute of Medicine (IOM).

Clean, piped water is said to be prohibitively expensive for many Angolan families, forcing them to rely on unsafe water, which, along with poor sanitary conditions, contributes to nearly 90 percent of deaths from diarrhea.

UNICEF has underscored children’s right to water and a clean environment, as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

At the launch of the new initiative, Jocelline Bazile-Finley, UN Resident Coordinator, said that it will help Angola reach the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on ensuring environmental sustainability and “will also contribute to reducing poverty.”

Some 120,000 people are set to benefit directly from the initiative, funded by the Spanish Government, while 400,000 others are expected to impacted positively, the UN has said.

By staff writer

© African Future

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