President of the Republic: “World Water Forum Will Make a Substantial Contribution to Efforts Deployed to Universalize Access to Drinking Water and Ensure Sustainable Management of Water Resources.

The ninth edition of the World Water Forum opened on 21 March in Dakar, with the participation of the President of the Republic, Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.
In his speech before the participants, the President of the Republic said that the forum would make a substantial contribution to the efforts deployed on a planetary scale to universalize satisfactory access to drinking water and ensure sustainable management of available water resources.
The meeting that brought together several Heads of State and Government, and development partners was also an opportunity for the President of the Republic to present the new strategy for the Mauritanian water sector. The Mauritanian strategy aims to better guarantee, in a satisfactory manner, access to drinking water for all our populations and particularly those who are the most vulnerable.
In addition, Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani appealed to profoundly change the perception of the value of water and production methods, the irrigation techniques, and the industrial processes to make them less polluting and more water-saving.
Here is the full speech of the President of the Republic:

“Excellency Mr. Macky Sall, the President of the Republic of Senegal, President-in-Office of the African Union,
Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, Heads of State and Government,
Excellency Madam Vice-President
Mr. the President of the World Water Council,
Mr. the President of the World Bank,
Madam, the Director-General of UNESCO,
Mr. the Director-General of the International Finance Corporation,
Ladies and gentlemen, the representatives of financial institutions,

Ladies and Gentlemen, the organizers,

Honorable participants,

First, I would like to thank my friend and brother, His Excellency Mr. Macky Sall, the President of the Republic of Senegal, the President-in-Office of the African Union, for his kind invitation as well as for the warm welcome and legendary Teranga hospitality. I would also like to congratulate His Excellency for the perfect organization of this ninth edition of the World Water Forum, which is being held under the theme “water security for peace and development” and for the very first time in sub-Saharan Africa.

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,



The first condition for the emergence and the permanence of life, water is an indispensable resource, required in appropriate quantity and quality, for the advent of human civilization and its development in the diversity of its aspects and the multiplicity of its dimensions. However, not only are the sources of this precious water not equitably distributed between the different countries, nor within each of them. But they are not inexhaustible either, even for those of them that the rhythm of the seasons and hydrological cycles ordinarily tends to reconstitute. Also, the scarcity of water is felt more and more strongly in many parts of the world, under the combined effect of climate change, the sharp increase in needs induced by the growth of the world population, as well as the global mismanagement of water sources.

Several studies converge on the fact that in ten years, if by then there are no significant changes in our approach to the problem of water, we will have, in Africa alone, hundreds of million people without satisfactory access to drinking water and sanitation.

Access to drinking water is therefore a real challenge for Africa and for all of humanity, which is not only a challenge of survival, but also fundamentally a social, economic, and political challenge. This is the whole meaning of the sixth Sustainable Development Goal, which aims to ensure universal access to drinking water, hygiene, and sanitation by 2030.

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the victim of several decades of drought and desertification, strongly affected by the effects of climate change and the irregularity of rainfall, is confronted, like many other countries, with the challenge relating to access to water and sanitation as well as the mobilization of water resources necessary for agriculture and livestock.

To meet these challenges, we have developed a new water sector strategy in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, and with our determined national contribution, revised for the same deadline. This strategy aims to better guarantee, in a satisfactory manner, access to drinking water for all our populations and particularly those who are the most vulnerable.

To this end, it targets, on the one hand, the improvement of knowledge of exploitable water resources, the rationalization of their use, the mobilization of the funds required for the establishment of the necessary infrastructures. And on the other hand, the strengthening of the effectiveness of the joint management of the Senegal River water is already exemplary in many respects within the framework of the Organization for the Development of the Senegal River, whose 50th anniversary we have just celebrated.


We are convinced that universalizing satisfactory access to this precious resource and ensuring the sustainability of its management for future generations is an urgent issue for all of humanity. Together, we will need to profoundly change our perception of the value of water, as well as our production methods, our irrigation techniques, and our industrial processes to make them less polluting and more water-saving.

The World Water Forum is an ideal framework for exchanging and deepening reflection on all these issues, with a view to identifying and promoting concrete actions and innovative solutions to the challenges related to them.

I am convinced that this ninth edition of the said forum, through the quality and diversity of its participants, will make a substantial contribution to the efforts deployed on a planetary scale, with a view to finding the solutions most likely to universalize satisfactory access to drinking water and sanitation and ensuring sustainable management of available water resources.

Thank you “.