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Contributions from
the Column
Tribune
The importance of basic sanitary services
Human rights: “Make our position unmistakably clear”
No justification for dams
Beautified data
01/2007
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[ Poverty alleviation ]
Deadly taboo
Basic sanitation is just as important as access to safe drinking water. Nonetheless, “dirty” issues are often avoided in public discourse. The UN has rightly declared 2008 the “Year of Sanitation”. As a general rule, half of all investments in the water sector should be spent on wastewater disposal. Furthermore, it makes sense to use excrements as raw material.
[ By Uschi Eid ]
2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation. This number is more than twice that of the 1.1 billion who still have to get by without clean drinking water. It is a catastrophe taking place without public attention. Where there are neither adequate sanitary facilities nor wastewater disposal systems, sewage tends to remain in people’s immediate living environment. Accordingly, water-related diseases kill more people than wars. We are dealing with a human tragedy – and an enormous obstacle to development in many countries of the Third World. Some 5000 children die every day from the consequences of dirty water.
By adopting the Millennium Development Goals in 2000, the international community resolved to halve the numbers of the people without basic sanitation and those without safe drinking water by 2015. But as far as wastewater is concerned, it is foreseeable that this pledge will not be met – unless, that is, efforts intensify considerably.
According to the UNDP, inadequate water supply and sanitation cost sub-Saharan Africa five percent of the region’s GDP every year, as unhealthy living conditions result in health expenses and days lost at work due to illnesses. The sum amounts to around $28 billion and exceeds the development assistance and debt relief the continent received in 2003. Only 36% of the people south of the Sahara have access to basic sanitation. This is lowest rate worldwide; 69% is the global average.
In view of these figures, investments are not only indispensable for human development. They are also commercially viable. According to estimates by the World Health Organisation, every dollar invested in the water and wastewater sector brings economic benefits of three to four dollars– depending on the technology used and the local conditions. At the same time, investment in this sector is also the best form of preventive medicine. After all, 80% of diseases in developing countries are caused by bad drinking water and untreated sewage.
The worldwide sanitation crisis has far-reaching consequences. However, as the “dirty” flipside of “clean” drinking-water provision, the topic enjoys little attention. Those who stress its relevance are quickly mocked of “wanting to save the world with toilets”. However, supply and disposal are inseparably connected. Without reliable wastewater disposal, there can be no reliable provision of drinking water. As Kevin Watkins, lead author of last year’s Human Development Report, correctly explains, “not having access” to sanitation is a polite way of saying that many people obtain the water for their daily needs from sources that are polluted with human and animal excrement.
The Hashimoto Action Plan
Neither additional world conferences nor new inventions are needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goal in the wastewater sector. Numerous international agreements show that consensus has long been established on what is to be done. The UNDP is wrong to propose to set up a new international action plan with the participation of the G8 nations. We already have such a plan: the “Hashimoto Action Plan: Our Action – Your Action.” It was named after Ryutaro Hashimoto, a former Japanese Prime Minister, who died last summer. Up to the time of his death, he chaired of the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB), appointed personally by Kofi Annan. UNSGAB worked out the action plan. After its presentation, the document had considerable impact on the ministerial declaration at the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico last March.
One focus of the “Hashimoto Action Plan” is on basic sanitation, which includes three aspects: hygiene promotion, household sanitation and sewage facilities. The Hashimoto Plan does with without the by-now instinctive call for more development assistance. To solve the worldwide sanitation crisis, it recommends breaking down the taboos that stand in the way of active problem solving. Indeed, it is irrational, dangerous and expensive that “dirty” issues are not discussed in public. Keeping quiet leads to inactivity. Sanitation is something politicians only reluctantly comment on, just as HIV/AIDS was until recently. Obviously, the official inauguration of a well provides more attractive opportunities for election-campaign photos than does the opening of a latrine.
Nonetheless, the campaign WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) is making a valid contribution to raising awareness. Among other things, it explains the health effects of washing one’s hands after going to the toilet. As proposed by UNSGAB, the UN General Assembly recently declared 2008 the “International Year of Sanitation” in an effort to attract more public and political attention.
National governments have to assume leadership in dealing with the sanitation crisis. Those politically in charge are called upon to draft water and wastewater strategies and to make them priorities in domestic affairs. On average, developing countries only spend a pitiful 0.5% of their national budgets on improving water supply and disposal. According to the UNDP, this figure should be incresed to one percent of GDP. Some experts also suggest that, as a rule of thumb, 50% of all funds invested in the water sector should flow into wastewater disposal. To date, the global average is only 20%.
Furthermore, national governments have to combat rampant corruption in the water and wastewater sector. Otherwise, it is estimated, $20 billion will disappear down the drain in the next ten years.
Moreover, sustainable funding will depend on mobilising local capital on top of government contributions. Revenues from tariff systems can help in this respect and, for social reasons, such tariffs should charge people according to their incomes. Such schemes would not only allow wastewater disposal to be improved, but also investments to be sped up. After all, local utilities will have better access to the capital markets once they can rely on regular turnover.
Environmental criteria
As an important and tangible approach, the Hashimoto Action Plan recommends “ecological sanitation” (Ecosan). This concept offers many alternatives to conventional waste-disposal methods and is promising in both economic and environmental terms. Valuable water should not be misused to transport excrement. Water, a precious liquid, is becoming ever scarcer. Nonetheless, treatment systems normally are not in place at all, and most of those that are, do not inadequately filter faecal germs from the wastewater. Furthermore, the huge demand for water in agriculture should be met, at least in part, by treated sewage instead of putting a strain on scarce fresh-water sources.
The Ecosan approach provides innovative possibilities. It is oriented towards the close-to-nature principle of material-flow cycles, utilising excrement as fertiliser or as a raw material in energy production. The assumption that sanitation systems are too expensive for poor countries is simply wrong. Small, affordable facilities make it possible to use excrement cost-effectively and without health risks. By contrast, humankind is flushing the equivalent of around $15 billion down the toilet in conventional sewage systems.
Furthermore, separating excrement means reducing the need for centralised, costly and high-energy treatment plants. The practice also prevents health problems, which affect slum dwellers in particular, when clogged sewers are contaminated with excrement and become breeding grounds for pathogens. In view of the declining global fresh-water supply, it is environmentally necessary to use water sparingly. On top of that, using treated sewage in agriculture is interesting commercially. Therefore, it is regrettable hat the Human Development Report does not pay any special attention to this technology, whereas the Hashimoto Plan does.
The worldwide sanitation crisis is already of such a momentous human and economic scale that we cannot afford to carry on with “business as usual”. It is high time that all those in positions of responsibility act – and the Hashimoto Plan provides a solid basis for doing so.
Uschi Eid
is the acting chair of UNSGAB (United Nations Secretary General Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation), a member of the Bundestag for the Green Party and former Parliamentary State Secretary in the German Development Ministry.
uschi.eid@bundestag.de
Links:
Hashimoto Action Plan: http://www.unsgab.org
Human Development Report: http://www.undp.org
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