Voices of the Forum

March 17  

Water for Growth and Development

 

 

Water security and development requires a minimum level of water infrastructure

 

For developing countries, reaching water security should be the first priority. Although it is important to address the social and environmental damage related to water development, these concerns must not impede progress. As nations develop their water resources, they need to invest relatively more in the development of institutions to ensure for operations and maintenance than in infrastructure building.

Water infrastructure development is especially key to Africa’s development needs, and when integrated in coherent regional strategies, it allows for integrated management and a sharing of cost and benefits.

The debate over dams should move beyond large versus small-scale infrastructure to consider all multipurpose options available while seeking a shift towards ecological oriented management. Nations can consider both large and small scale options to meet their needs at the lowest possible social and environmental costs.

 

Financing water for development

Water is a local affair, especially given the current trends in decentralisation processes.  Finance needs to be brought to the local level and shifted from supply to demand-oriented financing mechanisms.

Main sources of finance are taxpayers and consumers. We need to balance the income and the cost for service provision. That can only be done if all stakeholders (central and local government, public or private service providers, consumers and financers) work in partnership and decide on the level of services, technology selected, and cost recovery mechanisms including tariff structures and subsidy mechanisms.

Local actors should be empowered and their capacity should be strengthened, and developing local capital markets is needed to make local currency finance possible. Furthermore, access to finance needs to be increased for communities and the local private sector by creating gender sensitive credit schemes like micro-finance.

 

Clarify the roles and responsibilities of authorities and service providers

The mission of service providers has to be clearly specified. The public authority responsible for service and the operator need to be separated, even under public management, to allow easier and clearer definitions of roles and responsibilities and to set public services goals that must be achieved. The public authority has the freedom to choose the management mode and the service operator. The mode of management reversibility must be facilitated.

 

Corruption is a barrier to reaching water security

Transparency is essential to fight corruption and remove the barriers to development.  Methodologies and monitoring systems need to be further developed and shared through networks, involving all stakeholders’ experiences on how to fight against the corruptors and corrupted.

 

Respect for the spiritual and cultural values of water in development

Water is important in the indigenous culture and history. The spiritual value of water is as important as the utilization and social value of water.   Indigenous people consider water as a common good that should benefit all and not as something that could be used to make benefits. They are worried about the fact that privatisation in the water sector may sometimes overlook the poor and marginalized. The public policy makers have to pay more attention to the indigenous right to water, respect their culture and their knowledge of the water sector.

 

Without participation, no sustainable development

Projects have to be supported by local communities, indigenous people and other minorities, especially rural women, not only by targeting them. They must also be empowered to take part in participatory processes and action. This also means supporting capacity building for local stakeholders.

Promoting the efficient use of water, which means obtaining the highest return in benefit of different uses, increases sustainability.

 

Waste water management to fight poverty

Raw wastewater discharge is an obstacle to growth and development.  It affects everybodies’ health and the economy of all sectors of activity, but treatment is expensive. Raising the financial resources can be facilitated by the adoption and effective implementation of the polluter pays principle.

Sustainable management of water provision and sanitation must be focused at the level of watersheds. It is a basic condition to optimize money involved and to spread benefits among the largest part of the population, for health and for agriculture and industrial sectors. Integrated management of watersheds is based on a multi-stakeholders partnerships in which local authorities of all level must play a key role.  

 

 

Sessions synthesis

FT1.14 A way to directly support local stakeholders in implementing local actions for local development	FT1.21 Ensuring dams are a platform for growth and sustainable development	FT1.25 Can dams be an effective platform for poverty reduction and sustainable development
FT1. 40 The mass media : Key elements for a conscience and social participation in the problematic of the water	FT1.26 Access to finance for local governments	FT1.15 Is water alive ? Indegeneous understandings of water
FT1.35 The indigeneous towns and the water	FT1.33 Successful indegeneous approaches to IWRM and the achieving the MDG's	FT1.36 Business, water and sustainable development
FT1. 22 The dynamics of water and growth : Issues and political reflections	FT1.07 How to overcome corruption in water resources and service management ? Action for development	FT1.09 Financing water infrastructures in the Americas
FT1.23 Local initiatives (Community, involvement, stakeholders)	FT1.28 Water and energy	FT1.20 Megacities: Paradigms for urban water management
FT1.34 Water infrastructures for sustainable and equitable developmenty	FT1.10 Water for growth and development in Africa	FT1.13 Financing mechanisms for local water initiatives
FT1.24 Groundwater protection in Africa	FT1.29 Empowerment of young people for water management and the strengthening of the appropriate use of water	FT1.06 Water and transport
FT1.38 Sustainable and secure delivery of water : unique solutions proposed by the consulting industry	FT1.01 Water and free trade agreements	FT1.30 Assessment of policy interventions in the water sector
FT1.19 The young people in the water crisis and the challenges to face	FT1.39 Shared groundwater resources for sustainable management	FT1.32 Community water management in Latin America
FT1.27 New concepts and tools for education and capacity building to achieve the MDG's	FT1.08 The global potential for major water system reoptimization to restore downstream ecosystems and human livelihoods	FT1.04 Linking poverty reduction and water management : reaching the MDGs through investing in water
FT1.05 Achieving water security : Innovative solutions for system resilience	FT1.18 Innovative strategies for financing projects by local authorities. How to implement transparent, responsible and ethic models	FT1.16 Land and water resources development in semi-arid regions
FT1.02 Waste water management to fight poverty	FT1.17 Gender mainstreaming and ater for growth and development: diversity as an agent of change