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DEVELOPMENT: Water Progresses, Sanitation Regresses

Thalif Deen

STOCKHOLM, Aug 18 2008 (IPS) - The world's poorest nations are making halting progress in water, but little or no tangible improvement in sanitation – two of the basic necessities of life.

As far as the global state of sanitation is concerned, says Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), "It's one of the world's greatest scandals."

Addressing the 18th international water conference in the Swedish capital Monday, Berntell said that 2.5 billion people still lack access to adequate sanitation, resulting in some 1.4 million preventable child deaths due to diarrhoeal diseases each year.

As a follow-up to the U.N.'s International Year of Sanitation (IYS) 2008, this year's 'World Water Week' hosted by SIWI will primarily focus on problems of sanitation worldwide.

The conference, comprising over 40 workshops through Friday, is being attended by a record 2,400 participants, including government officials, donors, academics, engineers, scientists and representatives of the private sector and international organisations.

The U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seek to reduce extreme poverty and hunger by 50 percent by 2015, has also set a target of halving the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation.

But this goal may never be reached, says SIWI, unless at least 10 billion dollars are invested every year, through 2015, to improve sanitation worldwide.

Meanwhile, according to a joint study early this year by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), there is marked improvement on the water front. The number of people living without a supply of improved drinking water has declined to well below one billion, down from about 1.4 billion last year.

Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, chair of the U.N. Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB), told delegates that more than half the global population now has water piped to their homes and the number of people using unimproved water supplies continues to decline.

However, he related a starkly contrasting story on sanitation, citing "disturbing facts and figures that illustrate the consequences of having no access to sanitation."

"But it is worth noting that very many people are still not familiar with the statistics or even aware that there is a global sanitation crisis."

It is these people – policy makers and opinion leaders – that have never suffered the lack of adequate sanitation, and if they have, it is too long ago to remember the undignified, inhumane circumstances, he added.

"These people use a fancy toilet, which is connected to an effective sewer system. And they are probably unaware that this toilet and its flushing system are critical to a healthy life."

The prince said it is hard for them to imagine how unsafe – not to mention embarrassing – it is to relieve oneself in public, in the middle of the street, or for women in rural areas waiting for sunset to find a bush or faraway field, with high risks of physical assault or rape.

Still, all is not lost, said the chair of UNSGAB, which recommended that the United Nations declare 2008 the International Year of Sanitation (IYS).

"The year is not over yet, but I would like to take a look at what the IYS has achieved so far," Willem-Alexander said.

In fact, he said, this is also an appropriate moment to decide what needs to be done in the final months of IYS 2008 and agree on the future road map for achieving the MDG target on water and sanitation.

He referred to many international, regional, national and local events and initiatives that have been launched this year.

The regional sanitation conferences, for example, such as LatinoSan, AfricaSan, EaSan and SacoSan, produced unprecedented declarations that provide a strong foundation for developing the water and sanitation sectors in these regions.

There has been remarkable progress in Asia and Latin America in terms of access to improved sanitation, he added.

In Africa, too, the number of people gaining access is rising steadily, but the increase cannot keep pace with population growth. More people means more waste. It's that simple.

Still, according to the joint WHO-UNICEF report, the worrying conclusion is that, at the current rate, the world will miss its MDG sanitation target by more than 700 million people. "If we are to reach the target, we now need to provide at least 173 million people per year with access to improved sanitation," the prince said.

But there have been other results: in June there was the African Union Summit on Water and Sanitation in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, attended by 52 heads of state and government. The African member states unanimously adopted a declaration giving high priority to water and sanitation.

Fortunately, words are being translated into action with impressive results on the ground, he pointed out: "When I visited Ethiopia earlier this year, I learned that 1.3 million latrines had been built within 18 months in the country's Southern Nations province."

And this year UNSGAB took up another, less tangible and so perhaps more difficult, challenge: the IYS 2008 has made great strides in breaking the sanitation taboo by bringing unmentionable subjects like toilets and faeces out of the shadows and into the open.

"UNSGAB will continue to 'call a spade a spade' – or perhaps I should say 'a toilet a toilet'. And, ladies and gentlemen, I hope I can inspire you to do the same," he told delegates, "because there is still a long way to go."

A Global Sanitation Fund was launched this year by the Geneva-based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.

Still questions remain: "Is the IYS 2008 making enough impact on the ground? Will our activities lead to sustainable improvements?"

"In other words, how many more people are gaining access to improved sanitation facilities? How many have already paid a visit to the toilet? How many now experience improved sanitation as a basic facility?" he asked.

"Six months down the line we can conclude without doubt that UNSGAB's efforts are bearing fruit. We are on the right path and support around the world is increasing. But that does not mean we have achieved all our goals. In fact, we have only just begun."