| |
Editorial
03/2006 |
|
Water: modernising modernisation
We know what it takes to provide water to everyone in any given area. What is needed is a system that fits local circumstances. It has to use natural resources efficiently, provide access to the whole population and work reliably. Such systems require sound organisation, be it under state control or as a private enterprise. Of course, water utilities will not work without a solid financial base. Continual losses undermine sustainability.
Massive infrastructure is only useful where the political and social context is adequate. In no way is infrastructure a substitute for good governance. Where the institutional conditions are inadequate, large dams and extended piping systems will fail.
Ever since the invention of development policy after World War II, infrastructure projects – including water supply – were focal points. Nonetheless, safe drinking water is still on the UN agenda of Millennium Development Goals almost two generations later. And rightly so. Many efforts have failed. But that is no reason to lose heart. There are also success stories – based on lessons learned from previous failures.
We now know that engineering skills are not the crucial issue, whereas access to modern technology was what development experts initially understood as modernisation. Nor is it enough to simply let market forces reign. No one should be surprised that simplistic privatisation concepts promulgated in the heyday of the Washington Consensus were doomed to failure. Markets, after all, react to purchasing power, not need.
The socio-political context matters. Good governance is important, in the sense of local willingness to act responsibly and including the people in decision making. Successful schemes vary from one place to another, taking account of different local conditions.
On Peru’s rain-deprived Pacific coast, it makes sense to drop the goal of providing water to homes around the clock, as described in the February issue’s InWEnt Forum. In view of the local constraints, it is more appropriate there to allow as many people as possible to fill up their water storage regularly, for them to get through the day. In contrast, it is feasible to provide safe drinking water 24 hours a day in the Tanzanian in town of Tanga, which has a less serious water shortage.
The water sector is a good example of how development programmes have developed over the decades. Today, good governance, local ownership, public participation and similar buzzwords dominate the debate. The World Bank finally started emphasising them some years ago, and for good reason. That more attention is paid to these aspects, proves that modernisation strategies are themselves under modernisation pressure. However, up-to date donor policy does not mean that solutions are easily implemented. Nor can donors enforce success – the local conditions matter, as noted above.
The global community would certainly be further down the road towards the Millennium Goals for water supply if the principles of good governance were political reality everywhere. Donors can best promote these principles by being as cooperative and consensus-oriented in all policy fields as their development experts demand. By doing so, donors would also create a sound base for the international negotiation systems needed to fairly share limited natural resources among different states.
Dr. Hans Dembowski
Editor in Chief of D+C Development and Cooperation/E+Z Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit
euz.editor@fsd.de
|
