Government authorities announced on Thursday in Maputo that between 1990 and 2015, more than 13 million Mozambicans accessed clean drinking water and 7 million accessed proper sanitation.

Despite the number indicating more than half of the Mozambican population estimated at 25 million, government authorities said that the sector for water access needs more investments.

The Minister of Housing and Public Works, Carlos Bonete told cooperation partners in a meeting aimed at presenting the country's strategic vision towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals for water until 2030 that the country will need an estimated 4 billion U.S. dollars to invest in the sector.

The amount will be used to improve water access, guarantee sustainability and equity in service delivery including resilience to climate change, Bonete said.

"Up to now, the country has a coverage around 50 percent in terms of safe access to clean water and about 1/3 of the population has access to sanitation," the minister added.

Nelson Trindade, national director for water access, said that the level of investment in the sector of water is beyond the expectation.

The meeting with partners in Maputo was also aimed at raising financial resources to materialize the government objectives in this sector.

Manuel Alvarinho, Chairman of the Water Regulation Council, aimed to speed up the process to use every source of water for consumption.

"We need to consider water, hygiene and sanitation as fundamental tools to fight poverty. We need to find out how to capture water from the drainage systems and from rains," said Alvarinho.

source: Xinhua