Chirac urges global aid for African water scheme

PARIS, April 1 (AFP) – President Jacques Chirac of France on Friday issued a plea for international help to raise the USD 14 billion (EUR 10.7 billion) needed to finance a huge international water supply programme in Africa.

In a message read to the opening session of the International Conference on Water Supply and Sanitation in rural Africa in Paris, Chirac said France would play its part in contributing to the fund.

“This conference marks the first step of a new mobilisation … I solemnly call on the whole of the international community to join the effort,” he said.

The message was delivered by his special representative for Africa, former International Monetary Fund director Michel Camdessus.

The African Development Bank, which organised the conference, launched an initiative last year aimed at allowing 300 million people to have access to water and sanitation by 2015.

Asked by journalists for a reaction to the appointment of the former US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank, Camdessus said his priorities should be: “Africa, then Africa and finally Africa.”

© AFP