Health, dignity and development: what will it take?

220 Pages·2005·4.89 MB·English

by  R. L. Lenton

�����������������
�����������������
������������������
�������������
���������������������������
�����������������������������
�������������
���������������������
����������������������������������
����
����������������������
TF7-Water-1227.indd 1 4/14/05 4:51:30 PM
First published by Earthscan in the UK and USA in 2005
Copyright © 2005
by the United Nations Development Program
All rights reserved
ISBN: 1-84407-219-3 paperback
For a full list of publications please contact:
Earthscan
8–12 Camden High Street
London, NW1 0JH, UK
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.earthscan.co.uk
22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166-2012, USA
Earthscan is an imprint of James and James (Science Publishers) Ltd and publishes in association with the International
Institute for Environment and Development
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested
This publication should be cited as: UN Millennium Project 2005. Health, Dignity, and Development: What Will it
Take? Task Force on Water and Sanitation.
Photos: Front cover Franck Charton/UNICEF; back cover, top to bottom, Christopher Dowswell, Pedro Cote/
UNDP, Giacomo Pirozzi/Panos Pictures, Liba Taylor/Panos Pictures, Jørgen Schytte/UNDP, UN Photo Library,
Giacomo Pirozzi/UNICEF, Curt Carnemark/World Bank, Pedro Cote/UNDP, Franck Charton/UNICEF, Paul
Chesley/Getty Images, Ray Witlin/World Bank, Pete Turner/Getty Images.
This book was edited, designed, and produced by Communications Development Inc., Washington, D.C., and its
UK design partner, Grundy & Northedge.
The Millennium Project was commissioned by the UN Secretary-General and sponsored by the United Nations
Development Programme on behalf of the UN Development Group. The report is an independent publication that
reflects the views of the members of the Task Force on Water and Sanitation, who contributed in their personal capac-
ity. This publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations, the United Nations Development
Programme, or their Member States.
Printed on elemental chlorine-free paper
TF7-Water-1227.indd 2 4/14/05 4:51:30 PM
Foreword
The world has an unprecedented opportunity to improve the lives of billions
of people by adopting practical approaches to meeting the Millennium Devel-
opment Goals. At the request of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the UN
Millennium Project has identified practical strategies to eradicate poverty by
scaling up investments in infrastructure and human capital while promoting
gender equality and environmental sustainability. These strategies are described
in the UN Millennium Project’s report Investing in Development: A Practical
Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which was coauthored by
the coordinators of the UN Millennium Project task forces.
The task forces have identified the interventions and policy measures
needed to achieve each of the Goals. In Health, Dignity, and Development:
What Will It Take? the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Sani-
tation emphasizes that achieving the water and sanitation target and investing
in water infrastructure and management are crucial to the achievement of all
the Millennium Development Goals—a key point that is echoed in Investing
in Development.
Consider, for example, the sanitation crisis. Four in ten of our fellow
women, men, and children have no choice but to defecate in buckets, in plas-
tic bags, in open fields, and alongside footpaths, streets, and railroad tracks,
not occasionally but every single day. This persistent yet largely unrecognized
humanitarian crisis must end if we are to reduce disease, hunger, and gen-
der inequality; improve the lives of slum dwellers; and achieve environmental
sustainability. Conversely, progress toward these and other Millennium Devel-
opment Goals—particularly the reduction of poverty and gender inequality—
is vital to achieving the water and sanitation target and to improving the use
of Earth’s water resources.
TF7-Water-1227.indd 3 4/14/05 4:51:30 PM
iv Foreword
Health, Dignity, and Development has been prepared by a group of leading
experts who contributed in their personal capacity and volunteered their time
to this important task. I am very grateful for their thorough and skilled efforts,
and I am sure that the practical options for action in this report will make an
important contribution to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. I
strongly recommend it to anyone who is interested in how countries can make
the dream of safe drinking water and basic sanitation a reality for their poorest
citizens.
Jeffrey D. Sachs
New York
January 17, 2005
TF7-Water-1227.indd 4 4/14/05 4:51:30 PM
Contents
Foreword iii
Task force members x
Preface xii
Acknowledgments xv
Millennium Development Goals xviii
Executive summary 1
Chapter 1 Water is life 3
The historical context 4
The institutional context 7
The focus of this report 10
Part 1 The Millennium Development target for domstic
water supply and sanitation 13
Chapter 2 Why focus on water supply and sanitation? 15
Human values and human rights 15
Contribution to the Millennium Development Goals 17
Chapter 3 Target 10 and the global monitoring system 28
Target 10 on water and sanitation 31
The current system for monitoring and evaluation 33
Chapter 4 Where are the needs greatest? 38
Access to domestic water supply and sanitation services 39
Current levels of access and the rate of progress toward the goal 41
Low access to services and high incidence of water-related disease 42
TF7-Water-1227.indd 5 4/14/05 4:51:31 PM
vi Contents
Identifying greatest needs globally 44
Pinpointing greatest needs within countries 45
Chapter 5 What’s holding us back? 62
Political constraints 62
Institutional constraints 64
Financial constraints 69
Technical challenges 74
Conclusion 77
Chapter 6 The special challenge of meeting the sanitation target 79
A collective or an individual service? 80
The nature of demand for improved sanitation 81
Reorienting public institutions for sanitation service delivery 83
Changing roles for government 85
New technologies or better use of existing technologies? 87
Alternative planning approaches for urban sanitation 88
Alternative planning approaches for rural sanitation 90
Galvanizing support for sanitation and hygiene 91
Chapter 7 Technology and infrastructure 93
Available technological options 93
Cost-reduction strategies 98
The need for innovation 100
Chapter 8 What would it cost? 102
Global estimates 102
National estimates: a method to assess needs 103
Chapter 9 Grappling with financing for the poorest 113
Principal target group: poor people in the poorest countries 114
Financial constraints in low-income countries 115
Affordability, sustainability, and water conservation 122
What about middle-income countries? 123
Part 2 Water resources for all the Millennium
Development Goals 125
Chapter 10 Why does water resources development
and management matter? 127
Poverty and hunger 128
Environmental sustainability 133
Health 136
TF7-Water-1227.indd 6 4/14/05 4:51:31 PM
Contents vii
Gender equality 137
Exploiting potential synergies through combined approaches 138
Chapter 11 What actions are needed? 142
Investing in water resources development and management 146
Adopting integrated water resources management 147
Examples of context-specific actions 148
Chapter 12 Monitoring and support systems 151
Monitoring water resources 151
Global institutional support structures 156
Recommendations for the international community 157
Part 3 Achieving the Millennium Development Goals 161
Chapter 13 How to make the Goals a reality 163
A call to action 163
Ten critical actions 165
Chapter 14 An operational plan 174
Appendix 1 Insights from case studies 180
Notes 194
References 200
Boxes
1.1 Millennium Development target 10 4
1.2 Lessons from the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation
Decade 9
2.1 Lack of sustainable access to basic sanitation—a polite way to say
“open defecation” 16
2.2 Economic benefits from improving water supply and sanitation
services 19
2.3 Maximizing the health benefits from water supply, sanitation, and
hygiene interventions 20
2.4 Where does hygiene fit in? 24
2.5 Household water treatment and safe storage 24
2.6 How long are we going to live this way? 25
2.7 Modest dreams 26
3.1 What is sanitation? 30
5.1 Water is a political issue 63
TF7-Water-1227.indd 7 4/14/05 4:51:31 PM
viii Contents
5.2 Overcoming constraints and increasing access: the South African
experience 77
6.1 Unheard voices of women 82
8.1 Assumptions used in arriving at the estimates in table 8.1 103
10.1 Water-related disasters: facts from the World Health
Organization 127
10.2 Improving water management to spur economic
development 128
10.3 Main water-related recommendations of the Millennium Project for
meeting the poverty and hunger Goals 130
10.4 Main water-related recommendations of the Millennium Project Task
Force on Environmental Sustainability 133
10.5 Living with urban environmental problems 134
10.6 Main water-related recommendations of the Millennium Project Task
Force on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers 135
10.7 Malaria: facts from the World Health Organization 136
10.8 Main water-related recommendations of the Millennium Project Task
Force on Education and Gender Equality 137
12.1 The evolution of interagency coordination in water resources and
sanitation 157
Figures
3.1 Millennium Development Goals for water and sanitation reach the
neediest in urban and rural areas 33
4.1 A typology of communities with low water supply and sanitation
coverage 45
5.1 Access to water supply rises as national income rises 69
5.2 The richest are twice as likely to use drinking water from an improved
source as the poorest 70
5.3 The richest are four times more likely to use improved sanitation than
the poorest 70
5.4 Private investment in infrastructure has fallen off in recent
years 72
6.1 Urban water and sanitation services are much more expensive than
simpler rural services 89
Maps
4.1 Regional groupings for the Joint Monitoring Programme 39
4.2 Prevalence of diarrhea and improved water supplies, 2000 43
4.3 Prevalence of diarrhea and improved sanitation, 2000 44
11.1 Water stress in major river basins 145
TF7-Water-1227.indd 8 4/14/05 4:51:31 PM
Contents ix
Tables
2.1 Contribution of access to domestic water supply and sanitation to the
Millennium Development Goals 18
3.1 Improved and unimproved water and sanitation facilities 29
4.1 Access to improved drinking water sources by region, 2002 40
4.2 Access to improved sanitation by region, 2002 40
4.3 Number of people to whom access must be extended by 2015 to meet
target 10 41
4.4 High-need countries identified by various criteria 46
4.5 Typology of unserved and underserved communities for water
supply 55
4.6 Typology of unserved and underserved communities for
sanitation 60
7.1 Water supply technologies 94
7.2 Selected technological options for sustainable access to
sanitation 95
7.3 Water and sanitation service levels 97
8.1 Cost estimates for reaching the Millennium Development targets for
water supply and sanitation, 2005–15 (billions of dollars) 103
8.2 Resource requirements for reaching target 10 in Ghana,
2005–15 110
8.3 Resource requirements for reaching target 10 in five low-income
countries, 2005–15 111
9.1 Unserved people: where are they? 114
9.2 Distribution of the global population without access to safe water
supply 115
9.3 Distribution of the global population without access to basic
sanitation 115
9.4 Potential domestic resource mobilization for the Millennium
Development Goals 119
10.1 Contribution of improved water resources management to the
Millennium Development Goals 129
14.1 Priority actions for national and subnational governments 176
14.2 Priority actions for bilateral and multilateral development assistance
agencies 177
14.3 Priority actions for the United Nations system 177
14.4 Priority actions for service providers 178
14.5 Priority actions for civic and community organizations 178
14.6 Priority actions for international networks and partnerships 178
14.7 Priority actions for research organizations 179
14.8 Priority actions for all actors throughout the Millennium
Development process and beyond 179
TF7-Water-1227.indd 9 4/14/05 4:51:32 PM