The Mozambican government estimated on Monday that $1.8 billion is needed to ensure that the entire population has access to safe drinking water, and called on private investors to invest in the sector.

"It is a huge effort, but not unachievable," said the Minister of Public Works and Housing.

Osvaldo Machatine was speaking after the launch of the international conference of financiers of the water supply system, which will take place in Maputo on September 15.

The governor said that the Mozambican government is committed to increasing the coverage rate of the national water supply network from the current 65% to 82%, by 2025.

The achievement of the goal will create conditions for Mozambique to reach, in 2030, the objective of universal access to drinking water recommended by the United Nations, in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"We have a very diverse set of projects in the water sector and they all compete to achieve this goal," he added.

The massification of access to drinking water, he continued, requires a greater intervention from the private sector to act in cooperation with the state and international partners.

In this sense, he continued, the government intends to list on the stock exchange the commercial companies that manage the water supply systems in Mozambican cities, aiming to allow private capital to enter these entities.

"Private investment will address many gains, starting with efficiency in infrastructure management, because we are having water losses between 50% and 55% and we want the private sector to come in and contribute technology to reduce these losses," emphasized Osvaldo Machatine.

Machatine pointed out that the mobilization of resources for the water sector aims to provide the country with the capacity to deal with the increasing scarcity of this resource, which "is already a source of conflict in other parts of the world."

Lusa Agency