The Pan African Intergovernmental Agency for Water and Sanitation for Africa, commonly known as Water and Sanitation for Africa (WSA) is an intergovernmental organisation devoted to improving access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) on the African continent.

It is headquartered in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

History The agency was founded in 1988 as the Centre Régional pour l'Eau Potable et l'Assainissement à faible coût (CREPA; "Regional Centre for Low-Cost Water Supply and Sanitation"), a training and research network serving francophone West and Central Africa.

In 1997 CREPA changed from an association into an inter-state public-interest institution governed by a Council of Ministers of its member states. By 2010 it had a membership of sixteen countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo.

It was restructured into a pan-African intergovernmental organisation in 2011, and in December 2013 the United Nations General Assembly granted it observer status.

In June 2014 staff at the Ouagadougou headquarters staged a sit-in demanding payment of salary arrears, the creation of staff representation and the departure of Executive Secretary Idrissa Doucouré, whom they accused of poor financial management.

On 23 February 2015 an extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers convened in Ouagadougou dismissed Doucouré, citing the alleged wrongful dismissal of around seventy employees over three years and the non-payment of several months of salaries.

At an extraordinary session in Yaoundé on 27 September 2017 the Council of Ministers appointed Hobah Pierre Rogoto, a Burkinabè water specialist, as Executive Secretary with a mandate to restore the institution.

Membership The agency reported 32 member states in 2013 and 2015, and 35 in 2018.

(by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (by 2010) (2011) (2011) (2011) (2011) (2011) (2012) (2012) (2012) (2012) (2012) (2012) (2012) (2012) (2012) (2012) (2013) (2013) (2013)

See also African Water and Sanitation Association Water supply and sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa

References

External links

Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations, New York