Development & Aid, Environment, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean, Poverty & SDGs

DEVELOPMENT: Mismanagement, Corruption Blamed for Water Shortages

Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Mar 9 2006 (IPS) - Although there is enough water for everyone on earth, 1.1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation – problems that are attributed by the second United Nations World Water Development Report to mismanagement, corruption, bureaucratic inertia and lack of investment.

“Water, a Shared Responsibility” was presented Thursday in Mexico ahead of the Mar. 16-22 Fourth World Water Forum, which will draw thousands of government, business and civil society delegates to the Mexican capital.

The report, which was produced by 24 U.N. agencies, states that above all, the problem of how to share water in an equitable manner and ensure the sustainability of ecosystems is one of governance.

To talk about lack of water is to talk about poverty, and attempts to improve distribution must involve efforts to tackle poverty, Gordon Young, coordinator of the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), told journalists at the presentation of the report..

The study points out that one out of five people on earth lack access to clean water, four out of 10 have no basic sanitation, and more than three million people died in 2002 of water-related illnesses, mainly children under five in Africa and southeast Asia.

Every year, 1.7 million lives could be saved if there was universal access to safe water and adequate sanitation and hygiene.

The global water crisis is largely a result of problems like the impunity surrounding pollution, corruption and other illegal practices, Javier Bogantes, director of the non-governmental Latin American Water Tribunal, told IPS.

“Water, a Shared Responsibility” states that governance systems, which involve the public and private sectors and non-governmental organisations, “determine who gets what water, when and how, and decide who has the right to water and related services”

Young identified corruption as one of the driving forces behind the poor distribution of water in all political systems and all countries, to the extent that 1.3 billion dollars a year are lost as a result.

To illustrate, he noted that in Pakistan, rich farmers bribe officials in order to monopolise water supplies, leaving the poor without water, and that in India, local authorities are paid under the table by customers to falsify meter readings.

China and India account for more than half of the 2.6 billion people around the world – nearly two-fifths of the global population – who lack basic sanitation.

Today, just over one-third of the population of south Asia has access to sanitation. And in sub-Saharan Africa, coverage stands at just 36 percent, the U.N. report underlines.

Even though there is plenty of water for everyone, distribution is also hindered by the imbalances between availability of water and population density. Asia is home to 60 percent of the global population, but only 36 percent of the planet’s water resources, while South America accounts for just six percent of the population and 26 percent of water resources.

Furthermore, as much as 30 to 40 percent of piped water “goes unaccounted for,” through leakages and illegal connections, the report adds.

In addition, it says, financial resources for water are stagnating, and only a small proportion reaches those most in need.

The study reports that total official development assistance to the water sector in the past few years has averaged three billion dollars a year, with an additional 1.5 billion dollars in loans, mainly from the World Bank. But only 12 percent of that reaches the most vulnerable, and a mere 10 percent goes towards the development of water policy, planning and programmes.

To this is added the fact that private sector investment in the area is on the decline. In the 1990s, private sector spending on water supply and sanitation amounted to around 25 billion dollars in developing countries, mainly in Latin America and Asia.

But a number of transnational corporations “have begun withdrawing from or downsizing their operations in the developing world because of the high political and financial risks,” the report adds.

It also warns that if present trends continue, and management of water does not improve, areas like sub-Saharan Africa will not meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

And at a global level, the MDG target of cutting in half the number of people lacking access to basic sanitation will not be reached either, it notes.

The capacity to meet the steadily growing demand for water will depend on “good governance” and management of available resources, concludes the study, after pointing out that water usage increased sixfold in the 20th century, twice the rate of population growth.