South Africa's Department of Water Affairs and Forestry DG Jabulani Sindane, reading Ministers Buyelwa Sonjica's speech, indicated that without water infrastructure development in the continent, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals will fail.

Addresing delegates at the Pan African Water 2005 conference in Sandton yesterday, he said: “Water infrastructure development is a precondition for economic development.”

South Africa is already well on the way to meeting its water and sanitation goals of 2015, read Sindane.

On a broader scale, Nepad - through its African Ministerial Council - is in the process of identifying a high-priority regional water project, which is to be hosted by the African Development Bank.

However, this water project will require additional funding from the likes of the European Union, the World Bank and the Group of Eight countries.

It is anticipated that the private sector too will become involved in such financing and funding of the scheme.

One cannot expect poor communities to pay for the infrastructure required for such an ambitious project, indicated the Minister's speech.

There is no doubt that water resources are under strain in Africa. Lake Chad is at 120th its 1960's size, and Lake Victoria is facing water-quality issues.

Some ports are being placed under pressure due to the current lack of rain in Southern Africa.

There is a lack of general infrastructure around water provision and storage capacity on the continent, as the US boasts water-storage capacity per person of 6 000 m3. In South Africa, this figure drops to 746 m3. However, in Ethiopia the situation is direr, with only 43 m3 for each person held in storage.

Some 21 of the world's most arid countries are located on the continent, which also faces severe poverty and developmental issues among its people.

To resolve this dilemma, infrastructure is required to store water, pump water and move it from less arid areas to where it is most needed.

Without water, these countries will not be able to access such basic services such as electricity generation. In addition, the provision of water would enable small communities to tackle poverty through small-scale farming.

However, there is a project that could provide both water and electricity to large tracts of African land, as the Inga project in the Democratic Republic of Congo is arguably Africa's largest engineering feat since the Suez Canal.

In Western countries, hydropower is already at an advanced stage with 60% having already been developed, compared to only 6% in Africa.

There can be no argument that such a power source would be clean and would not deplete already-pressured energy sources such as oil.

In addition, such a power source would not emit fumes, such as those emitted from coal-fired stations, into the atmosphere.

But it is imperative in looking at such a scheme, read Sindane, that those affected by the development of the dam will be better off in the long run.

In addition, the impact on the ecosystem must be managed and contained as far as possible.

The sustainable benefits of such a scheme are also better than traditional power sources, as the plant can be rejuvenated every 30 years and one such plant has been running for over 100 years.