More than 12 million people living in the country's rural areas have benefited from water under the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Program (PRONASAR).

The information was made known by the Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, Carlos Mesquita, during the meeting to establish the PRONASAR provincial supervision committees, which took place on Wednesday, December 13, in Maputo province.

"We are fully aware that the challenges only increase considering that our targets must be weighted and adjusted, bearing in mind the annual population growth rate, estimated at around 2.5%, in a context in which the necessary average growth rate of water supply and sanitation coverage has been estimated at 3.5% and 7.7%, respectively, between 2015 - 2029," the minister stressed.

In view of current coverage rates and the various social, economic and demographic challenges, as he emphasized, the level of effort needed to bring universal coverage of water and sanitation services closer by 2030 corresponds to an average annual rate of around 6.1 and 9.7%, respectively.

"In the medium term, in line with the government's Five-Year Program 2020-2024, PRONASAR's objective is to ensure sustainable access to safe water supply and sanitation services for 80% and 75% of the rural population, respectively, by 2024," said Carlos Mesquita.

"That's why we want to say that the conditions have been created for block action to guarantee assistance to our communities by providing quality drinking water to improve sanitation in the environment, the right way to achieve universal coverage for all communities by 2030," he concluded.

Also on the occasion, the sector's cooperation partners, namely the British High Commission, the Austrian Development Agency, USAID, Swiss Cooperation and UNICEF, expressed their commitment to continuing to support the water sector and the government financially and technically in the provision of the water supply and sanitation service.

It should be noted that the annual budget for the implementation of PRONASAR is in the order of 50 million US dollars, provided through the state budget and cooperation partners working in the subsector.