The UK has agreed that half of our direct aid to poor countries should be spent on basic services, including water. We will double our support to water and sanitation in Africa to £95 million a year by 2008-09 and then double it again to £200 million a year by 2001-11.
DFID's total support to the sector, including through the World Bank, the multilateral development banks and the EC, was £242 million in 2005-06. Our bilateral funding was just over half of this at around £130 million in 2005-06.
Our total support to sub-Saharan Africa has increased significantly to £78 million (from £46 million in 2002-03), so we are on track to reach the World Water Day target of £95 million by 2007-08.
Further detail on DFID's expenditure in the sector can be found in our report ‘Financial Support to the water sector 2004-2006’, which will be placed in the Library of the House. This is our most recent report and was published in March 2007. Details of our 2006-07 expenditure are not yet available.