Aid for Sanitation and Water Going Down from 8 to 5 Percent of Development Spending
May 7, 2010
Aid commitments for sanitation and water fell from 8% of total developmentaid to 5% between 1997 and 2008, lower than commitments forhealth, education, transport, energy and agriculture, according to the latest UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report, launched by UN-Water and the World Health Organization (WHO). This drop occurred despite compelling evidence that achieving the water and sanitation target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) would lower health-care costs, increase school attendance and boost productivity.
The findings from the UN-Water GLAAS report were tabled at the first annual High Level Meeting of Sanitation and Water for All, hosted by UNICEF on 23 April 2010 in Washington, DC. The High Level Meeting provided a forum for Ministers of Finance from developing countries, accompanied by Ministers responsible for sanitation and water from 20 developing countries, and representatives from 12 donor countries to gain a greater understanding of the linkages between water, sanitation, and economic growth, in order to commit the appropriate resources, as well as to promote a culture of mutual accountability, partnership and shared responsibility.
Source: United Nations University, Institute for Water, Environment and Health
UN experts urge the world community to set a new target, beyond the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of a 50 percent improvement in access to adequate sanitation by 2015, to the achievement of 100 percent coverage by 2025.
The experts have published a new report that offers 9-point prescription for achieving the Sanitation MDG by 2015.
Far more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet and improved sanitation.
Recent UN research in India, the world’s second most populous country, shows roughly 366 million people (31 percent of the population) had access to improved sanitation in 2008.
Other data, meanwhile, shows 545 million cell phones are now connected to service in India’s emerging economy. The number of cell phones per 100 people has exploded from 0.35 in year 2000-01 to about 45 today.
Worldwide some 1.1 billion people defecate in the open. And data show progress in creating access to toilets and sanitation lags far behind world MDG targets, even as mobile phone connections continue to a predicted 1 billion in India by 2015.
Says Zafar Adeel, Director of United Nations University’s Canada-based think-tank for water, the Institute for Water, Environment and Health: “It is a tragic irony to think that in India, a country now wealthy enough that roughly half of the people own phones, about half cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet.”
“Popular education about the health dangers of poor sanitation is also needed. But this simple measure could do more to save lives, especially those of young people, improve health and help pull India and other countries in similar circumstances out of poverty than any alternative investment. It can also serve as a very significant boost to the local economy.”
The new UNU report cites a rough cost of $300 to build a toilet, including labour, materials and advice. Worldwide, an estimated $358 billion is needed between now and 2015 to reach the MDG for sanitation – some of this funding is already mobilized at national and international levels.
“The world can expect, however, a return of between $3 and $34 for every dollar spent on sanitation, realized through reduced poverty and health costs and higher productivity – - an economic and humanitarian opportunity of historic proportions,” adds Dr. Adeel, who also serves as chair of UN-Water, a coordinating body for water-related work at 27 UN agencies and their many global partners.
[I]f current global trends continue [there will be] a 1 billion person shortfall from the MDG sanitation goal in 2015 — in all, 2.7 billion will lack access. So, while the world will miss the MDG target, the absolute number of those without access to sanitation will actually go up.
The problem is a major contributor to water-borne diseases that, in the past three years alone, killed an estimated 4.5 million children under the age of five — a death toll roughly equal to the population of Ireland or Costa Rica.
“This report [1] notes cultural taboos surround this issue in some countries, preventing progress,” says Zafar Adeel, Director of UNU-INWEH. “Anyone who shirks the topic as repugnant, minimizes it as undignified, or considers unworthy those in need should let others take over for the sake of 1.5 million children and countless others killed each year by contaminated water and unhealthy sanitation.”
The UNU-INWEH report synthesizes information from a wide range of UN and sources:
Of the estimated $358 billion cost to meet the MDG target, $142 billion is needed to expand coverage (mostly to rural areas) and $216 billion to maintain existing services (mostly in urban areas)
For all of Africa to meet the water and sanitation MDGs, the number of people served must double from the 350 million served in 2006. At current rates of progress in Sub-Saharan Africa, the sanitation MDG might not be met until 2076
An estimated 443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related diseases
Once girls reach puberty, lack of access to sanitation becomes a central cultural and human health issue, contributing to female illiteracy and low levels of education, in turn contributing to a cycle of poor health for pregnant women and their children
The report offers nine recommendations:
Address sanitation in the context of global poverty and in concert with the other MDGs as part of an overall strategy to increase global equity;
Make sanitation a primary focus within the broader context of water management and access to safe water;Integrate sanitation into community life – holistic, community-based and communitydriven.
Empower local communities (not just households) to identify needs, change behaviour, create demand for ownership and overcome obstacles such as land tenure;
Make coordinated, long-term sanitation investments focused on both “software” (usage) and “hardware” (facilities). To make monitoring more valuable, integrate failures and successes associated with sanitation delivery in community-based evaluations;
Redefine “acceptable” sanitation access within the context of gender, economic realities and environmental constraints;
Adjust the MDG target from a 50 percent improvement in access to adequate sanitation by 2015 to 100 percent coverage by 2025;
Co-ordinate the responses of national NGOs to the sanitation crisis and enhance communication, especially regarding lessons learned, to form an effective and vocal sanitation advocacy group;
Design new business models to develop markets at the bottom of the pyramid and deal with the apexes of the water-sanitation-hygiene triangle concurrently;
Recommit to official development assistance equal to 0.7 percent of GDP and, within this framework, commit 0.002 percent of GDP to international investments in sanitation.
Says Dr. Adeel: “As president of the G8 in 2010, Canada has announced it will champion ‘a major initiative to improve the health of women and children in the world’s poorest regions,’ making this the top priority of the leaders’ meetings in June. Better nutrition and immunization are foremost among the remedies cited.”
“We would urge, however, that providing decent sanitation be emphasized among the simple, inexpensive solutions available, as it would do more to save the lives than any other possible measure.”
Says report co-author Corinne Shuster-Wallace of UNU-INWEH: “Sanitation for all is not only achievable, but necessary. There is a moral, civil, political and economic need to bring adequate sanitation to the global population.”
[1] UNU-INWEH (2010). Sanitation as a key to global health : voices from the field. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. Read the full report
The Lack of clean of clean, safe drinking water is a worldwide crisis. This article points out in glaring terms how severe a crisis this is.
A 4/15/10 Post from WASH (Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene), which provides international news on water supply, sanitation and hygiene services in developing countries.
Dirty Water Kills More People than Violence, says UN
Saving half the water lost through leaky pipes and ill-maintained sewage networks could supply 90 million people with clean water, says a UN report [1] released on World Water Day.
Dirty water is killing more people than wars and other violence, the United Nations announced on World Water Day.
Almost all dirty water produced in homes, businesses, farms, and factories in developing countries is washed into rivers and seas without being decontaminated.
And up to 60 percent of supplies that have been purified to the point that they are potable are lost through leaky pipes and ill-maintained sewage networks, according to a report released on 22 March 2010. Saving half of these lost supplies could give clean water to 90 million people without the need for costly new infrastructure, says the UN.
“The sheer scale of dirty water means more people now die from contaminated and polluted water than from all forms of violence including wars,” the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said.
This includes 2.2 million people whose deaths are attributed to diarrhea, mostly from dirty water, and 1.8 million children aged under five who succumb to water-borne diseases. This equates to one infant every 20 seconds.
The findings were presented during a three-day conference held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to coincide with the annual focus on clean and sustained water supplies for a human population expected to grow by 50 percent in the next four decades.
“If the world is to survive on a planet of 6 billion people heading to over 9 billion by 2050, we need to get smarter about how we manage wastewaters,” Achim Steiner, UNEP’s director, said in a press release. “Wastewater is quite literally killing people.”
Rivers of sewage in the slums
Less than five miles from the downtown conference center hosting the water conference, Grace Gathura spent Monday morning as she always does – queuing for water at a communal tap in Nairobi’s Kibera slum.
The shantytown, home to 1 million people largely ignored by the city authorities, is notorious for its “flying toilets.”
Without decent latrines in their iron-walled huts, people are forced to defecate into plastic bags, which are then unceremoniously thrown out of the door.
The waste is among the 2 million tons of sewage and industrial or agricultural waste that ends up in rivers and streams each day.
Most of those water sources are then also used for cooking and cleaning water.
“I have lived here in Kibera for 12 years, and it is only two years ago that this tap was constructed,” Mrs. Gathura said. “Before, there were people selling clean water at prices which are too high for us. But even now, there are many of us who do not find clean water every day, and so many are sick.”
According to the UNEP report, more than half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people struggling with illnesses linked to contaminated water.
Easy solutions?
“It may seem like an overwhelming challenge but there are enough solutions where human ingenuity allied to technology and investments in nature’s purification systems such as wetlands, forests, and mangroves can deliver clean water for a healthy world,” said Mr Steiner.
Aside from recommending a focus on fixing leaky pipes, the World Water Day meeting called for water recycling systems and multi-million dollar investments in sewage treatment works.
But, the UN added, just $20 million could pay for drip-irrigation and tread pumps to draw water from wells, which couldlift 100 million poor farming families out of extreme poverty.
Over the past several months we have been researching potential partners for one of our social venture enterprises; aquaculture and hydroponics. This research has led us to the premiere provider of this technology in Mexico BOFISH. Our goal is to incorporate aquaculture and hydroponics into our sustainable sewage treatment system such that these enterprises will help generate revenue for the operations and maintenance of the treatment plant, high-value agricultural products, and local employment.
We are pleased to have this collaboration is this helps move our vision forward of making a truly sustainable wastewater treatment system, and turns a public health hazard into a major public asset.
We held a Board meeting on Saturday afternoon May 22 to bring everyone in the organization up to speed on our progress and our challenges. We had several members joined in person and a few more on the conference call. Stan and I went over the history of the past year, including an overview of our two trips to Oaxaca. We then spoke about the challenges and opportunities we are currently facing in trying to implement our sustainable sewage treatment system. We hope to have a major announcement about this project in a month or so.
The conversation then moved to how to reshape our board and acquire more board members who are more experienced in nonprofit management and fundraising, along with more representation from the Hispanic community. In addition, we are working on an overall marketing strategy, and a strategy to increase our sphere of influence with our donors and their friends. Our goal is help our current donors to help us expand our network of supporters.
I wish to introduce Michael Hughes. He is helping us with marketing and writing grant proposals. He lives in Stanwood and is excited to be part of the team. Welcome Michael!
An update on what’s happening in Mexico: Nelly is in touch with a lab to do the water testing and to measure the flow rate. Rick would like to get an extended flow rate for a month before and during the rainy season. Maria, the current mayor of Santo Domingo, is in the midst of an election campaign. By May 25th, Nelly should have information on property ownership of the area around the perimeter of the dump.
Let me also introduce Fernando Bonilla and Carlos Leon Ramos of BOFISH, a company in Mexico which engages in fish-farming and hydroponics (aquaponics). They have a great website, Acuaponia.com
Rick and Stan are working on a formal budget to support the emerging fundraising strategy.
Rick will host a Water for Humans Board meeting Saturday, May 22, 2010 at his home NE in Seattle starting at 4 pm.
Instituto de la Naturaleza y la Sociedad de Oaxaca (INSO)--(Major sponsor) and Water for Humans shared a table at this event (see image of the poster in a post below)
From the Oaxaca news.
To combat the crisis of negatives impacts to nature and society, it’s urgent to make transformations, and to mark these transformations the “Gathering for an autonomous life” begins on the 8th of April in EL Llano Park.
In accordance with the call to combat the changes in nature and society leading to repercussions in health, it’s necessary to adopt new attitudes and practices.
Through round tables, interactive games, projections and technology exhibitions for treatment of waste, organizers are looking to raise people’s consciousness so they will change the attitudes that harm the environment.
“Beginning with the autonomous action of people and groups, propelled by the dire necessity of survival, or due to old ideals, we can convert the disasters that overwhelm us into opportunities to reverse the phenomena that they create,” say the Center of Support of the Popular Movement Oaxaca.
More than the fact that these new attitudes and practices can enrich daily life, they create natural and social harmony, and stimulate forms of dignified life.
Teemed with the ensemble of these actions is the goal to exemplify another way of life that doesn’t affect the natural environment.
Organizations and communities of Oaxaca and of the country will participate in this gathering to share their experiences, knowledge, attitudes and various capacities to work on the construction of an economically feasible, ecologically sensible and socially just world.
Other events taking place are the 6th Congressional Expo -“Towards a holistic vision of health”, the 5th Expo Ecology Fair - “The sun comes out for everyone”, dialogue and climate conventions in the towns, Tianguis indigenous multicultural, Seminary “Rethink water from civil society” and the second national forum of
Aid commitments for sanitation and water fell from 8% of total development aid to 5% between 1997 and 2008, lower than commitments for health, education, transport, energy and agriculture, according to the latest UN-Water Global Annual Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report, launched by UN-Water and the World Health Organization (WHO). This drop occurred despite compelling evidence that achieving the water and sanitation target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) would lower health-care costs, increase school attendance and boost productivity.
