March 19

Voices of the Forum

March 19  

Water Supply and Sanitation
for all

 

Governments have the primary responsibility for making the right to water a reality for all, including sanitation

 

The National governments are primarily responsible for enabling implementation of the right to water through legislation, regulation, policies, work plans and associated budget allocations. Political will is essential in this process.

Sanitation and water supply are integrally linked and therefore sanitation is an integral part of the human right to water. Policy-makers must be sensitised to the issue of sanitation.

The application of the right to water requires a clear definition of rights, obligations and responsibilities of each stakeholder, the identification of an authority to oversee the implementation of this right, as well as the allocation of adequate human and financial resources.

 

Women and girls especially are the most affected by lack of sanitation facilities

 

Women and children are the most affected from lack of access to water and sanitation. Girls must have access to sanitation facilities in schools to keep them going to school.

Furthermore, women’s groups are a catalyst for community development, an agent for change and can act as important role models. In addition, through their own empowerment, women’s groups can also empower other marginalised groups.  They make a case for service delivery. This is why Government policies must respond to the priority of women and increase their representation.

Small investments in building women’s capacity yields huge returns, but both women and men need to feel a sense of proprietorship for local projects and be free from the influence of corruption. Cultural contexts must be considered in particular for sanitation projects.

 

Financing access to water for all requires solidarity and innovative mechanisms

 

Meeting the costs associated with implementing the right to water requires solidarity among citizens, cities and regions to make access to water and sanitation services affordable to all people, especially the poorest.

International solidarity and cooperation is particularly important for the poorest countries. Cooperation among groups at the local level has a great potential, both for North-South and South-South partnerships.

The efficiency, the reliability and the accountability of utilities need to be improved to attract finances. The reform of institutions to build public confidence and move toward tariffs that ensure the sustainability of the systems is also required. Local capital markets need to be developed to allow long-term local currency loans. Risk mitigation instruments (guarantees, insurance) are required to cope with political risk, currency risk…

 

Decentralisation of governance: local services and community participation

 

Decentralisation has proven successful in a variety of cases all over the world. But, without adequate capacity, human and institutional resources and authority, decentralisation can have the opposite effect and lead to service degradation.

Increasing awareness and building responsibility and capacity of local communities are key factors for the success of decentralised cooperation initiatives as they ensure the sustainability of projects.

The active participation of civil society and local communities is necessary, especially indigenous people, women and small farmers and this “grassroots” water knowledge should be taken into consideration. Projects have to correspond to actual community needs and strengthening local capacity in existing delivery systems is more favorable than erecting new ones.

 

PPP controversy: a matter of political choice

 

We have to recognize the political nature of water and the limits of the market; governments cannot rely solely on the private sector to reach the MDGs. Public efficiency has to be improved and operations rendered democratic.

The question of the social acceptance of private sector involvement is still a problem. “Private” sounds like “profits” to the population, and for many people, the concept of profiting from water is unacceptable. But, people need to get used to paying for water services, and there is a strong need to initiate dialogue within the civil society to choose a model people want to follow.

Water service provision will remain mainly public. Financing the water sector requires tapping all available financial resources. The equilibrium between public and private sectors and the accumulated knowledge of past experiences have to be preserved when private sector participation is considered useful.

 

Monitoring progress toward the MDGs

 

Quantitative and qualitative indicators as well as assessment methods differ too much from one country or institution to another. They should be comparable and more consistent before being communicated at the local and national level.

Monitoring should be transparent to build public trust and confidence. To facilitate the management and decision-making processes, the simplicity of indicators is very important.

This could allow local communities to participate in measuring and monitoring activities with locally friendly and participatory monitoring systems and tools. The quality of indicators of implementation of the MDGs depends on the quality of local indicators.

Monitoring programs should also include more gender-specific data.

 

Technologies can be useful if their transfer is sustainable and respectful

 

Ecological sanitation is a feasible, efficient and affordable alternative to conventional systems, which allows saving water and money. Ecological sanitation could considerably contribute to achieving the water-related MDGs thanks to agricultural, economic, social and environmental benefits, and thus contributing to food security.
New technologies in general need a transfer of know-how between North and South. For this transfer to be sustainable, it is essential to give people what they want, with respect to cultural diversity, and reciprocity. 

 

 

Sessions synthesis

 

FT3.52  Appropriate operation and maintenance of water supply and sanitation facilities	FT3.28 Strategies and technologies for arsenic and fluoride mitigation from drinking water	FT3.21  Delivering Millenium Development Goals in three years : a model setting regional initiative
FT3.47  Human Right to Water	FT3.01  Decentralisation : the role of communities in water resources management	FT3.20 Monitoring and targeting drinking water supply and sanitation
FT3.19  Service Delivery and local empowerment	FT3.08 Scaling up water, sanitation and hygiene education for schools	FT3.14  Accelerating prgrss toward Millenium Development Target 10 : what will it take ?
FT3.41 Governance of local water and sanitation services	FT3.40  Innovating financing mechanisms for drinking water and sanitation : local governments alernatives	FT3.29 Sanitation, hygiene, education : household water management
FT3.07 Access to safe water and ecological sanitation for rural areas, good practices in Latin America and Eastern Europe from a gender perspective	FT3.43 The public-private controversy in water and sanitation : lessons in the light of the MDGs requirements	FT3.27  Safe drinking water for all
FT3.37 Water and sanitation in human settlements in Latin America and Carribean	FT3.35  Securing the Right to Water ; from the local to the global civil society perspectives	FT3.02  Clean Water for people -- US-Japan initiative toward achieving the MDGs in water and sanitation
FT3.50  Monitoring session 2 : the way forward for MDG country level monitoring	FT3.25  Sector Wide Programme Approaches (SWAP) to meet MDGs	FT3.10  Voicing peoples interests - civil society innovative change in water and sanitation policy
FT3.15  Making a difference in slum and low income settlements : toward achieving the MDGS for water and sanitation	FT3.17  Governance for local water and sanitation services - needs of cities in developing countries and responses from international initiatives	FT3.23 Harnessing local providers to deliver water for all
FT3.22 Hygiene promotion : improving state of the art	FT3.13  ecological sanitation : closed-loop sanitation approaches to attain healthy and sustainable cities and the MDGS	FT3.04 Knowledge generation & innovative technologies for the sustainable management of water resources in Europe and worldwide
FT3.38  APublic State policy iñpact on drinking water service delivery supply and sanitation for urban use in Mexico	FT3.48  Public policies for water and sanitation services	FT3.36  The Right to Water : what does it mean and how to implement ?
FT3.06  Desalinisation of seawater & saline groundwater	FT3.12  Safe, accessible, private and nearby : making services work for women -- the key to meeting the MDG water and sanitation target	FT3.05  Water supply and sanitation for all
FT3.09  Asian civil society innovating change	FT3.33 Transfer of organisational and technical know-how between Northern and Southern countries	FT3.03  Solidarity and decentralised forms of North/South and South/South funding
FT3.16  Service delivery and local empowerment : turnaround of public utilities	FT3.24  Emerging sanitation paradigms - economics and capacity building in ecosan	3.53  Governance of water and sanitation for the peri-urban poor : bridging the gap between policies and practicies
FT3.44  Improving local services through water operator partnership (WOPs)	FT3.46  Succesful public sector experiences in water and sanitation	FT3.55 Public utilities successful experiences
FT3.51  Empowerment and democratisation	FT3.58  Participation of the State Governors of Mexico I	FT3.18  Capacity development and empowerment of civil society
FT3.59 Participation of the State Govenors of Mexico	FT3.57  Public utilities successfull experiences	FT3.56 Human Right to Water and the conditions of its application / debate between the public and private administration of the drink water services
FT3.60  Public utilities successful experiences	FT3.54  Experiences, challenges and responses of water utilities to municipal water challenges and problems	FT3.39  Challenges and perspectives in megacities
FT3.45  Governance as a key factor for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in major metropolises	FT3.49  Water challenges in historic cities