Developing countries and donors agree to tackle the water and sanitation crisis

H.E. John Agyekum Kufuor - Former President of Ghana and Chair of Sanitation and Water for All

Ministerial delegations from 40 countries have announced serious commitments to tackle the global water and sanitation crisis. Developing countries have promised that they will provide safe drinking water to 60 million more people and improved sanitation to another 80 million people within two years. The governments of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom announced that they will collaborate to also get water and sanitation to millions of people.

Speech by Nigerian Finance Minister and World Bank Presidency candidate Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Convened by UNICEF and hosted by the World Bank and Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), the second High Level Meeting (HLM) on Water and Sanitation of the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) Partnership took place on 20 April in Washington, D.C. On the previous day, ministers responsible for water and sanitation from 40 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America had met to prepare a joint statement.

At the High Level Meeting, the Netherlands Secretary of State for Development Cooperation Ben Knapen announced a new cooperation between the Netherlands and United Kingdom with UNICEF and local authorities to bring water and sanitation to an additional 10 million people in nine countries – mostly fragile, post-conflict states in West and Central Africa. The Dutch commitment is part of a four-year plan to bring safe drinking water and sanitation to 25 million people.

“I am very pleased with the fact that UNICEF is prepared to guarantee the operation of water systems, pumps and last but not least water quality for at least 10 years. It’s not just about installing water pumps but providing sustainable services to the user. Independent third parties will monitor a representative sample of water points on an annual basis and report back to us”. He added: “UNICEF greatly appreciates Dutch knowledge and expertise in the field of drinking water and sanitation. At least 20-25% of the Dutch support will therefore be used to deploy Dutch knowledge and expertise to achieve sustainable results and local capacity building.”

“By seeking guarantees for sustainability and water quality as a pre-condition for financial support, the Netherlands is an international leader in increasing aid effectiveness,” says Simavi Director Rolien Sasse, who is also a member of the SWA Steering Committee on behalf of End Water Poverty.

The UK Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, announced that the UK is doubling the number of people they intend to reach with water, sanitation and hygiene education by 2015, from 30 million people to at least 60 million people globally.

USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah (USA) en Director-General of AusAid  Peter Baxter (Australia) announced at the High Level Meeting that they would join the Sanitation and Water for All Partnership, which now has over 80 members.

Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) is a partnership of governments, donors, civil society and international organisations. It was established in 2010 as an initiative of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to help developing countries, especially those that are most off-track, to reach the 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for water and sanitation.

The IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre is a member of SWA and of the SWA Steering Committee. IRC supported several countries, including Ghana, Mozambique and South Africa, to prepare their inputs for the SWA High Level Meeting.

For more information:

• Sanitation and Water for All – HLM 2012 Virtual Briefing Pack
• Sanitation and Water for All – Webcast
• IRC – Sanitation and Water for All

Rights to food and water are also human rights, says Dutch development minister

Bert Koenders. Photo: Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

During his opening address at the Seminar on Human Rights and the Millennium Development Goals, [Dutch] development minister Bert Koenders said that the refugees in Sri Lanka and Pakistan have the right to food, drink [that might not go down so well in Pakistan, presumably what is meant is water], and shelter. He said that these social and economic rights are also human rights, and that the governments responsible must ensure that they are not violated. He would hold them accountable for that.

His words were supported by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navanethem Pillay. She stressed the importance of human rights in achieving the MDGs and called for the deployment of legal instruments to this end.

‘Without human rights there will be no MDGs,’ said Koenders.

[...] Mr Koenders organised this seminar because human rights and development cooperation are inextricably linked.

Source: Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 26 May 2009

Quotes from his speech:

“Development organisations – like my own – should seek to build people’s capabilities to do so [be active subjects of their own development], by guaranteeing their rights to the essentials of a decent life: education, health care, water and sanitation, protection against violence, including domestic violence”.

” [I]n March 2008 the Netherlands recognised the right to drinking water and sanitation as a human right. This is a significant step forward in efforts to achieve the seventh Millennium Development Goal. It gives NGOs and lobbying organisations real leverage to persuade governments to do more for the most vulnerable in society”.

[...] we are now looking to see whether our bilateral development pilot projects can be implemented under that right [the right to water]. In this seminar, we want to explore ways of fleshing out initiatives like these. Because sectoral water policies can only work when they empower users and give them rights.

Read the full speech here

Millions to benefit from UK-Dutch water and sanitation initiative

Millions of people in Africa and Asia will be provided with clean drinking water and decent sanitation thanks to a new joint initiative from the UK and the Netherlands.

Announcing UK support for the “Framework for Action”, DFID Minister Gareth Thomas spoke of the need for greater progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on water and sanitation.
{…]

The initiative, which was launched on 24 September at the United Nations High-level Event on the Millennium Development Goals in New York, will allocate £5 million (6 million Euros) over five years to an annual report and high level meeting focused on reviewing progress. The first of these meetings will be held in 2009 and convened by Unicef.

A further joint Dutch-UK commitment was made of £85 million (100 million Euros) over the same period to help up to 20 poor countries develop and implement their own national water and sanitation plans.

Source: DFID, 25 Sep 2008

Other committments made during the”One World One Dream: Sanitation and Water for All” event at the UN High Level Meeting include:

• Japan  – establishment of a Water Security Action Team for Africa to provide safe drinking water for 6.5 million people and implement a water supply capacity-building program that would train 5,000 people over the next five years;
• Tajikistan – hosting the International Freshwater Forum in 2010;
• The Netherlands – providing access to safe drinking water and sanitation for at least 50 million people by 2015 having already signed various agreements that will benefit almost 30 million people, at a cost of around €1.3 b;
• Germany will continue to train Central Asian water experts.

Source: UN High-level Event on the Millennium Development Goals : Committing to action: achieving the Millennium Development Goals : Compilation of Partnership Events and Commitments, 25 Sep 2008

Netherlands recognises the right to water as a human right

In the opening of 7^th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 3 March 2008, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Verhagen, announced that the Netherlands is to recognise the right to water as a human right. Verhagen called on the Human Rights Council to make haste in reaching consensus on the right to water. He said that recognising the right to water as a human right would not solve the pressing issue of illness and high mortality rates, but was certain that it would be a powerful incentive to increase access to water for the poor. With the recognition of the right to water as a human right, the Netherlands will be able to point out to the governments of developing countries that they must do everything in their power to fulfill their people’s right to water.

Last year, on World Water Day, 22 March 2007, Minister for Development Cooperation, Bert Koenders, announced that he wanted the Netherlands to play a prominent role in getting the right to water recognised as a human right. Koenders said that this is necessary to make water a political priority and that he wanted Dutch embassies to push for the right to water at country level.

Read more: Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 3 March 2008