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Contributions from
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"Human Development Report 2006: Water crisis worse than war
Corruption: The World Bank suspends Lahmeyer
Asia on track for Millennium Goals
12/2006
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[ Human Development Report 2006 ]
Water crisis worse than war
In Africa, the economic damage done by deficiencies in water supply and sanitation amount to $28 billion per year – more than the continent received in development aid in 2003. If, from now on, enough was invested for Africa to reach the goal of halving the number of people without access to clean water by 2015, the annual damage would drop to around $13 billion, according to this years Human Development Report, which deals with water and was published by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in November. Its key message is that unfair distribution rather than unavailability of water resources is the main reason for current grievances.
According to the UNDP, roughly a billion people have no access to clean water; and 2.6 billion – half of the population of all developing countries – must do without basic sanitation. Every day, 4900 children worldwide die from diarrhoeal illnesses and 443 million school days are lost annually due to diseases caused by a lack of clean water and inadequate sanitation. No act of terrorism, no war has such a devastating effect as the water and sanitation crisis, the report claims. Nonetheless, the rich world scarcely takes note.
The report illustrates that the water crisis affects primarily the poor. “Water pricing reflects a simple perverse principle: the poorer you are, the more you pay.” In the UK, it is considered a hardship if the expenditure for water exceeds three percent of any given household’s budget. In contrast, the poorest 20% of Mexico’s population spend up to six percent of their budgets on water. In El Salvador and Jamaica, the water costs may even exceed ten percent.
According to the UNDP, many poor people in developing countries pay higher prices for water than residents of cities in advanced countries do. In the slums of Accra or Manila, one cubic metre of water costs more than three times as much as in New York City (see graph). The most important reason for this gap is that poor people are normally not connected to public supply networks, but rather have to buy their water from informal traders. The report therefore demands that safe water be really made a human right, with every person needing access to at least 20 litres a day.
The debate on whether or not to involve the private sector in water-supply systems has not led to any new insights, the UNDP states: “In some respects the intensity of the debate has been curiously out of step with reality.” After all, private-sector companies have only played a secondary role in water supply to date, especially in developing countries. The report calls for the issue to be discussed in a less ideological way. Effective political regulation is said to be crucial for an operational and fair water supply. “The criterion for assessing policy should not be public or private, but performance or non-performance for the poor.” (ell)
On the Internet:
http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/
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