Thalif Deen and Jennie Lorentsson
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 21 2010 (IPS) – An international coalition of over 120 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is demanding a North-South partnership to resolve the spreading global crisis in water and sanitation.
As a first step, Western donors and national governments are being urged to form agreements in at least seven to 10 pilot countries to develop credible national plans, including a new pooled fund and enhanced technical support to develop capacity and planning systems.
The coalition which includes End Water Poverty, African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation, Global Call to Action Against Poverty, Freshwater Action Network, Oxfam and WaterAid says donors should also refocus investments towards low-income countries and marginalised groups.
The proposals, which also call for funding outside of existing aid commitments, will go before the first high-level ministerial meeting on sanitation and water scheduled to take place Friday in Washington DC.
The meeting is being viewed as an opportunity to reverse the political and financial neglect of a crisis undermining progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Currently, there are over 2.6 billion people worldwide without adequate sanitation and over 900 million people lacking clean water.
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The MDGs, which aim to reduce poverty and hunger, also seek to halve the proportion of people without basic sanitation and safe drinking water by the year 2015.
Serena O Sullivan of the London-based End Water Poverty, a lead member of the coalition, told IPS the meeting can help bring people, governments and institutions together to address problems in the sanitation and water sector, and also ensure aid is put where it is needed most.
We are asking governments to commit that 70 percent of aid to the sector is designated to low-income countries and we must ensure that those who need help the most receive it, she said.
We re looking for governments attending the meeting to grab the opportunity to show they are serious about halting these needless deaths with effective funding and real political will, O Sullivan said.
We, and the 2.6 billion people affected by the sanitation crisis, need action, not words, she declared.
According to a study commissioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO), halving the proportion of people who live without sustainable access to improved water supply would cost around 1.78 billion dollars per year.
And halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to both improved water supply and improved sanitation would cost around 11.3 billion dollars annually.
Meanwhile, a report released Wednesday says that between 1997 and 2008, aid commitments for sanitation and water fell from eight percent of total development aid to five percent.
This was much 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) launched jointly by UN-Water and WHO.
UN-Water comprises primarily of representatives of 26 U.N. organisations, major funds and programmes, specialised agencies, regional commissions, U.N. conventions and other entities within the U.N. system.
Neglecting sanitation and drinking water is a strike against progress, says Dr. Maria Neira, WHO s director of public health and environment.
Without it, communities and countries will lose the battle against poverty and ill-health, she warned.
The report says that improved access to sanitation and water produces economic benefits ranging from three dollars to 34 dollars per one dollar investment, which also helps increase a country s gross domestic product by an estimated two to seven percent.
O Sullivan told IPS the primary reason for a drop in aid levels is that donors have not recognised the cross-cutting importance of water, sanitation and hygiene, and so have not invested sufficiently.
The water and sanitation crisis undermines progress made in education, child health and trade, she pointed out.
Another problem has been developing countries not demanding change, she added.
There is also a known problem with capacity in developing countries to spend aid effectively but that s something the Sanitation and Water for All initiative will change, O Sullivan added.
She also said that sanitation is overlooked as it has been a taboo and this must change.
We need people to talk about sanitation we need champions for the cause. We must speak out against the silent killer of 4,000 children under the age of five every single day, she declared.
