Hospitals & Asylums
World
Water Day HA-22-3-06
Goal
7 of the UN Millennium Development Goals: 7. Integrate the principles of
sustainable development into country policies and programs to reverse loss of
environmental resources. To reduce by
half the proportion of people without sustainable access to drinking
water. Achieve significant improvements
in the lives of at least 100-million slum dwellers worldwide by 2020. In 1992, the UN General Assembly designated
March 22 as “World Water Day” after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro to draw international attention to
the critical lack of clean, safe drinking water worldwide. Eighty percent of our bodies are formed of water,
and two thirds of the planet's surface is covered by water: water is our
culture, our life. The theme 'Water and Culture' of World Water Day 2006 draws
attention to the fact that there are as many ways of viewing, using, and
celebrating water as there are cultural traditions across the world. Sacred,
water is at the heart of many religions and is used in different rites and
ceremonies. Fascinating and ephemeral, water has been represented in art for
centuries - in music, painting, writing, cinema - and it is an essential factor
in many scientific endeavours as well. The
critical importance of water, in particular freshwater, for all aspects on
sustainable development, including poverty and hunger eradication, water related
disaster reduction, health, agricultural and rural development, hydropower,
food security, gender equality as well as the achievement of environmental sustainability
and protection was underlined at the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico
City from 16-22 March where the need to include water and sanitation were
marked as priorities in national processes, in particular national sustainable
development and poverty reduction strategies.
Nearly
1.1 billion people (roughly 20% of the world’s population) lack access to clean
safe drinking water. The lack of clean, safe drinking water is estimated to
kill almost 4,500 children per day. In fact, out of the 2.2 million unsafe
drinking water deaths in 2004, 90% were children under the age of five, mostly
from infectious diarrhea. Water is essential to the treatment of diseases,
something especially critical for children.
This problem isn’t just confined to a particular region of the planet –
it’s a world-wide public health issue. A third of the Earth’s population lives
in “water stressed” countries and that number is expected to rise dramatically
over the next two decades. The crisis is worst in developing nations,
especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The world water
crisis is created by a confluence of factors including climate and geography,
lack of water systems and infrastructure, and inadequate sanitation, something
that 2.6 billion people (40% of the world’s population) lack access to although
this number is more sympathetic to nature estimated at 600 million. Some of
these countries have additional problems, including high levels of arsenic and
fluoride in drinking water. Even with
these unsanitary conditions, many women and young girls in rural areas in
Sub-Saharan African and other parts of the world must trek as much as six miles
everyday to retrieve water for their families. Due to this manual labor, such
women and children are prevented from pursuing an education, maintaining their
households or earning additional income.
Thus, the lack of clean water, coupled with the lack of basic sanitation
and a dearth of hygiene education, is one of the largest obstacles to progress
and development in these regions and across the world. The UN has prioritized
water access among its Millennium Development Goals because it
contributes to such widespread suffering, including increased poverty, high
child mortality rates, depressed education levels, and political instability.
Without question, the world water crisis condemns billions of people to a
perpetual struggle to survive at the subsistence level. The world water crisis is one of the
largest public health issues of our time.
Access
to clean water and sanitation services has become a critical problem throughout
Latin America and the Caribbean,
but nowhere more urgently than in the region’s cities. Already under pressure
from decades of accelerated population growth, water systems in cities from Mexico
to Argentina
are reaching the breaking point. Aging treatment plants, old and leaky water
mains, depleted aquifers and polluted sources make it ever more difficult to
keep up with the growing demand. Meanwhile, tens of millions of people in
marginal urban areas still lack even basic water and sewer services. A recent
IDB study estimated that in Mexico
and Central America alone, governments will need to
invest US$23 billion in the coming decade if they are to meet the United
Nations Millennium Development Goal of halving the portion of their populations
without water and sanitation services by the year 2015. In South
America, tens of billions of additional dollars will need to be
invested. San Pedro
Sula is Honduras’
second largest city and its industrial nerve center. Between 1999 and 2003, the
number of homes with residential water service in San
Pedro Sula increased from 84
percent to 93 percent, thanks to the installation of 13,600 new connections.
The proportion of tap water receiving proper sanitary treatment rose from 22
percent to 80 percent. Water pressure and continuity increased throughout the
system. These gains took place during a period when the city’s population grew
at a daunting pace—from 444,200 to an estimated 526,000 people. Most notably,
they were achieved without using a single lempira (Honduras’
currency) from the municipal budget. Instead, the necessary infrastructure
improvements were paid by a private firm, Aguas de San Pedro, S.A.
de C.V. (ASP), which holds a 30-year concession to provide the service. At first everything went well but then the
prices went up and water meters were installed in every home.
The
news out of Cofradía, a low-income district near San
Pedro Sula, was shocking.
Residents claimed that water coming out of their taps was causing an epidemic
of skin diseases and stomach problems. Experts
agree that Latin America’s governments do not have the
financial resources necessary to adequately expand water and sanitation
services in the future. There are simply too many other competing priorities.
As a result, some kind of private participation in the water sector—either
through concessions, privatizations, or operating agreements under public
control—will be increasingly crucial for cities that want to improve water
service. Now entering the fourth year of
a 30-year concession to operate and expand water and sanitation services that
it awarded to a private consortium known as Aguas de
San Pedro, the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula has learned some valuable
lessons about the benefits and liabilities of this type of arrangement. Asked
what they would do differently if they could start all over, here’s what some
of the city’s water experts suggested.
- Create a strong, independent regulator.
Both municipal officials and ASP executives lament that plans to create an
effective regulatory body to oversee the concession were not properly
carried out. This has made it difficult for both sides to resolve disputes
over tariffs and other issues. However, a new law for the water and
sanitation services that was promulgated last year has now created an
independent national regulator for the sector. The concession contract
provides for regulation by this new organization, once it is operating,
and this should help to settle pending disagreements.
- Manage public perceptions proactively. Consumers
are much less likely to protest changes if they understand why, when and
how their water service will be affected or their water bill will
increase. These types of questions can be addressed through effective
public information campaigns. City officials and the water company must
coordinate these campaigns in order to prevent finger-pointing over
controversial decisions.
- Ensure land-use issues can be quickly resolved.
In San Pedro Sula,
municipal authorities vastly underestimated how long it would take for the
city to purchase or exercise eminent domain on land that ASP needs for new
wells, pumping stations and other infrastructure. As a result, the city
has yet to deliver key properties to ASP, and the company is consequently
unable to meet some of its obligations.
- Negotiate flexible implementation plans with
community leaders. In low-income
areas with a history of poor or nonexistent water service, it is best to
broker customized implementation plans with pledges of support by local leaders.
In San Pedro Sula,
a lack of flexibility in deciding issues such as when water meters should
be installed has ultimately complicated ASP’s work by inviting political
interference.
- Use carrots instead of sticks. Consumers
are much more likely to accept increases in their water bill if they see a
noticeable improvement in service quality first. Water companies that
start by sending out rate increases and only
later try to solve service problems risk permanently alienating
consumers.
World
Water Day. 22 March 2006. www.worldwaterday.org, www.worldwaterday2006.htm, wwd2006@unesco.org