Lawmakers worry U.S. giving water law short shrift ($$ went to Iraq, Afghanistan) - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Lawmakers worry U.S. giving water law short shrift

May 16, 2007

by Lisa Lambert

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration has failed to
adequately fund or uphold a 2005 initiative to give poor countries
access to fresh water, U.S. lawmakers and nonprofit groups said
on Wednesday.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, told a hearing that the
State Department and the United States Agency for International
Development misrepresented how they spent $200 million for the
plan last year and have given short shrift to sub-Saharan Africa.

The State Department used most of the funds for reconstruction
work in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States is waging
wars, he said. In an earlier letter, Blumenauer wrote that it only
spent $10 million for water in sub-Saharan Africa, where the
United Nations says 42 percent of the population lacks clean
water.

The Water for the Poor Act was intended to ensure long-term
projects would provide water where it is needed most,
Blumenauer and others argued.

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Read more: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3182300