The Diplomat
The Spanish Cooperation provided more than 30 million euros in 2022 for water and sanitation projects in Latin America and Africa, as reported yesterday by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) on the occasion of World Water Day, which is celebrated today.
On the one hand, AECID supported with almost 7.5 million euros to Spanish NGOs working in the sector (such as Solidaridad Internacional Andalucía, Enxeñería Sen Fronteiras Galicia and ONGAWA) in order to promote basic drinking water supply and basic sanitation, capacity building in water governance and protection of water resources in priority countries for Spanish Cooperation, such as El Salvador, Honduras, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Senegal.
In addition, 26 million euros of reimbursable funds were approved in 2022 for the second phase of the Irrigation and Integrated Watershed Management Project in Kayonza (Rwanda), an initiative that aims to improve the food security of rural families in the area and strengthen their resilience to climate change.
“In a context in which 2,000 million people still do not have safely managed drinking water, the objective is to advance in the effective realization of the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation and to promote the good management of water resources,” according to AECID. Apart from this, Spanish Cooperation has its own programs and specific instruments, such as the Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation (FCAS), the MASAR Water program or the Fund for the Promotion of Development (FONPRODE), the Agency recalled, when the halfway point of the Decade of Action for Water (2018-2028) is reached and coinciding with the celebration of World Water Day and the United Nations Conference on Water.
Within the Spanish Cooperation strategy, initiatives aimed at expanding access to water and sanitation services, on the one hand, and those more focused on the specific relationship of water with agriculture, food security and the environment, on the other, can be distinguished. “However, they all focus on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) as a formula for achieving sustainable systems and promoting water governance and institutional strengthening in the countries with which they work,” AECID said.
In the last 15 years, Spanish Cooperation has allocated more than one billion euros to strengthen both aspects. On the one hand, since 2008, the FCAS has allocated 800 million euros in donations to the implementation of 83 programs that have directly benefited four million people in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In addition, several programs are being implemented on the African continent for the management of water resources in relation to food security and resilience to climate change, promoting irrigation (in countries such as Niger, Ethiopia and Mali) and improving access to drinking water (in Matam, Senegal). Also, the MASAR regional program for the Arab World includes a component focused on water resources management, called Masar Water. Apart from this, since 2016, FONPRODE has allocated $308 million in reimbursable funds to various programs impacting the sector, 70% to expand access to water and sanitation and 30% to improve irrigation for agriculture, mostly in Africa.
Finally, within the framework of multilateral cooperation, we have contributed to the initiative to support the regional water strategy launched by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), and in the Philippines we are implementing the intervention for the Strengthening of WASH governance and planning in highly vulnerable areas of Mindanao through UNICEF.
