Lawmakers worry U.S. giving water law short shrift

(To read my blog comment on Los Angeles and drought, tap here.)

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 (news, bio, voting record), 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.