South African Minister Seeks Insight from UN High-Level Political Summit on Water, Sanitation

By Daniel Itai

South Africa’s Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, expressed his hopes of gaining valuable insights from the ongoing United Nations High-Level Political Forum (UN HLPF) in New York, United States of America.

Mchunu emphasized the importance of robustly engaging with other Member States and Organizations to learn from their experiences and improve South Africa’s service offerings.

“In addition to attending interactive sessions with other Member States, I will be meeting with the President of the General Assembly, Csaba Kőrösi. This is in furtherance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 6, which focuses on clean water and sanitation,” said Mchunu.

Addressing delegates at the Summit, Kőrösi highlighted the significance of the High-Level Political Forum as the world’s main platform for political leadership and concrete guidance in achieving the 2030 Agenda.

“You, Member States, must feel a strong sense of ownership over your development, and we must sharpen the tools of the UN system to track delivery of commitments and advise on corrective actions where needed. We have the knowledge we need to steer humanity out of the crises we face. My vision, my hope, for the Summit is that it will result in supercharging and accelerating the implementation of the SDGs. The Summit will be the moment to make new commitments to set in motion the game changers we need to agree on in only a matter of weeks. However, for this to happen, there should be an acknowledgement of the global state of affairs and a genuine recognition of how desperately we need to change how we think and what we do,” said Kőrösi.