To mark World Water Day (22/3), the EU’s Council of general affairs and external relations adopted the proposal of the Commission, dating to 2003, relating to a project aimed at promoting access to clean and healthy water for the populations of the ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific). The so-called Water Facility forms part of the world Plan for Water launched by the Commission during the world Summit on water in Johannesburg in 2002. Endowed with an annual budget of 1.4 billion euros, to be invested by 2015, it has made a first allocation of half a billion euros to improve basic infrastructures, such as purification plants and distribution chains, and especially to promote the creation of national policies for the management of water supplies. In a joint declaration of Council and Commission, the EU expressed its satisfaction about the adoption of the project, but at the same time recalled that the celebration of World Water Day is taking place in a sombre context: “one hospital bed out of every two is occupied by victims of diseases linked to water, and, according to estimates, 6000 children die each day due to poor sanitary and hygienic conditions”. “Access to drinking water concludes the EU represents for many a question of life or death”.
