NGO "ANOTHER WAY" (STICHTING BAKENS VERZET), NETHERLANDS, SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED SELF-FINANCING DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGIES

Millennium goal 7 is about the integration of sustainable development principles in national policies and the inversion of the current tendency to waste environmental resources (target 09), to reduce the percentage of the world population without clean drinking water and basic sanitation services by half by 2015 (target 10) , and to improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.(target 11).

Section 7 covers Targets 9, 10 and 11 : Water, sanitation, and slums. This session covers targets 10 (water and sanitation) and 11 (slums) only. Target 9 was covered in the previous session, 07. Target 09 : Ensure environmental sustainability.

On 26^th July 2010, the 64^th Session of the United Nations assembly in New York declared the human right to water and sanitation.

Read C. de Albuquerque’s report Stigma and the realization of the human rights to water and sanitation, Report A/HRC/21/42 of the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation., agenda item 3, Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Twenty-first session, Human Rights Council, New York, 2^nd July, 2012.

In her 2013 report A/HRC/24/44, C. de Albuquerque, the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation., agenda item 3, Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development Twenty-fouth session, Human Rights Council, New York, 11 July, 2013 writes:

“Moreover, while the Millennium Development Goals target calls for sustainable access, the monitoring framework not only fails to capture this dimension, but to some extent provides an incentive for quick solutions that have proven unsustainable in the long term. In a period of 20 years, more than 180,000 hand pumps installed in rural sub-Saharan Africa failed prematurely, representing a total failed investment of between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion; [3] if all of the pumps had continued to work, 70 million more people would have had access to water. [4] Data available for some regions show that between 35 and 80 per cent of water systems, such as hand pumps, were not functioning at the time the data was collected. [5] Similar problems arise with sanitation, as various wastewater plants have stopped being operational a short time after their construction. [6] Deteriorating water and sanitation infrastructure, compounded by rapid urbanization and insufficient maintenance, causes yearly water losses of between 250 million to 500 million cubic metres in many megacities’ supply systems.[7] However these “slippages” are not systematically monitored.”

The sources quoted are :

[3] IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, “Ghana and Uganda to pilot new model to improve rural water services” (2009) www.source.irc/page/ 48398

[4] Global Water Challenge, WAH Sustainability Charter, Collaborating for Best Practices, slide 4. www.slideshare.net/Global Giving/wash-sustainability-charter-collaborating-for-best-practices

[5] S. Sutton, “Preliminary desk study of potential self-supply in sub-Saharan Africa” (2004) p. 7.

[6] E. Corcoran and others, Sick Water? The Central Role of Wastewater Management in Sustainable Development (United Nations Environment Programme and United Nations Settlements Programme, 2010, p. 60.

[7] UN-Water Decade Programme on Advocacy and Communication, Water and Cities Facts and Figures, p. 2. Megacities are those with over 10 million inhabitants.

The UNDP Report on Human Development for 2007/2008 provides the following tables in relation target 10 (water and sanitation):

Table 07 : Water, sanitation and nutritional status.

Table 10 : Access to drinking water and sanitation:

Target 11 : Reduction of the number of slum-dwellers :

There is no applicable table in the Report on Human Development for 2007/2008.

Generic coverage is given to Millennium targets 10 and 11 in articles 24-29 of Section IV of the Plan of Implementation of the Millennium Goals.

For example, in article 25, paragraph d) :

“(d) Intensify water pollution prevention to reduce health hazards and protect ecosystems by introducing technologies for affordable sanitation and industrial and domestic wastewater treatment, by mitigating the effects of groundwater contamination and by establishing, at the national level, monitoring systems and effective legal frameworks;”

A general resource on the causes of water pollution is What are the main causes of water pollution at the Greensteps website.

The biggest single cause of pollution is industrial pollution, followed by agricultural pollution which includes, in particular, chemical fertilisers.

«Starting in the 1970s, international organisms such as the OECD and the EEC have been trying to make governments aware of the urgency of taking measures based on the polluter pays principle, stating that for environmental protection the polluter must carry "the cost of preventive measures and of the fight against pollution". » . (Translation from French : T.E.Manning). Source :Water, a resource to preserve (in French), at the French government gateway, La Vie Publique. The article continues with a description of the difficulties encountered in France with the application of that principle.

1. Opinion.

On one page state who, in your opinion, are mainly responsible for pollution and what its consequences are. Give a few cases of pollution known to you, for example the pollution of seas and coasts, the dumping of toxic wastes. Why has the principle «let the polluter pay » met with so much resistance over the last 40 years ? Why is the issue of pollution relevant to development in poor countries ?

Paragraphs e) and g) of article 26 of the Plan of Implementation of the Millennium Goals provide :

“e) Support the diffusion of technology and capacity-building for non-conventional water resources and conservation technologies, to developing countries and regions facing water scarcity conditions or subject to drought and desertification, through technical and financial support and capacity-building;

……………..

g) Facilitate the establishment of public-private partnerships and other forms of partnership that give priority to the needs of the poor, within stable and transparent national regulatory frameworks provided by Governments, while respecting local conditions, involving all concerned stakeholders, and monitoring the performance and improving accountability of public institutions and private companies.”

Article 54 (l) of the Plan of Implementation of the Millennium Goals, which is part of section VI «Health and Sustainable Development, reads :

“(l) Transfer and disseminate, on mutually agreed terms, including through public-private multisector partnerships, with international financial support, technologies for safe water, ………..”

This is, furthermore, the only reference to water in Section VI on the Implementation Plan on Health .

Article 66 of the Plan of Implementation of the Millennium Goals, is part of section VIII, which deals specifically with development in Africa.

With respect to water (and sanitation) in Africa the main objective is to :

“66. Promote integrated water resources development and optimize the upstream and downstream benefits therefrom, the development and effective management of water resources across all uses and the protection of water quality and aquatic ecosystems, including through initiatives at all levels, to:

(a) Provide access to potable domestic water, hygiene education and improved sanitation and waste management at the household level through initiatives to encourage public and private investment in water supply and sanitation ……….

(d) Protect water resources, including groundwater and wetland ecosystems, against pollution, and, in cases of the most acute water scarcity, support efforts for developing non-conventional water resources, including the energy-efficient, cost-effective and sustainable desalination of seawater, rainwater harvesting and recycling of water. “

“Water and sanitation targets are far from being met in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2010, 39 % of the population had no access to an improved source of drinking water and 70 % were without improved sanitation facilities. The respective targets were 25 % and 36 %.” European Court of Auditors, European Union development assistance for drinking water supply and basic sanitation in Sub-Saharan countries, Special Report 13, Luxembourg, 2012. ISBN 978-92-9237-826-4, par. 6., p. 8.) This document provides a clear and critical analysis, updated to the end of 2011, of the results of part of the European Union’s investments in water and sanitation in the Sub-Saharan countries during all project phases. The report concluded that :

“EU support [ the amount involved for all of Africa was € 1.009.871.275,75 , the amount for the 23 projects reviewed was > € 219.000.000] has thus increased access to drinking water and basic sanitation in the six sub-Saharan countries audited, using standard technology and locally available materials, though meeting beneficiaries’ needs in fewer than half of the projects examined. For a majority of projects results and benefits will not continue to flow in the medium and long term unless non-tariff revenue can be ensured. Despite comprehensive management procedures, the Commission did not tackle important matters regarding sustainability.” (par. 61, p. 26).

Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-Water 2013 Update, was published by the World Health Organisation, Geneva, together with UNICEF, May 2013, under ISBN 978 912 4 150539 0. The statistical information used in this type of report is usually supplied by local governments and agencies with a vested interest in painting an optimistic picture in relation to reality in the field. For instance, it is assumed that populations served at any time with “improved” water supply in the form of a borehole fitted with a hand-pump continue to be served even where the hand-pumps are no longer operational, as if often the case. People in poor urban areas are assumed to be supplied by piped water while many of them are either unable to pay for a connection to the piped system or for the water. Especially where the service has been privatised ! Figure 14 (p. 37) is headed “Trends in rural drinking water coverage by developing regions and the world.” This covers a period of 21 years from 1990-2011. That’s nearly a quarter of a century. Claimed improvements in the percentage of coverage are in most cases modest, despite mass emigration to urban centres. At the same time, figures for claimed urban coverage have remained static, while those for sub-Saharan Africa have seriously worsened. (Figure 13, p. 37). Assuming there have in fact been improvements, one wonders whether they would not have taken place anyway in the normal course of events, without the Millennium Development Goals.

“The success in achieving the Millennium Development Goals' (MDGs) water target and massive growth in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programmes have masked a little-discussed secret: WASH interventions frequently fail.

“Rather than focusing on what is almost literally pouring money down the drain, donor reports and NGO websites prefer instead to boast of the numbers of water pumps drilled or toilets installed.” (J.James, Africa : Sanitizing the Truth – When WASH Fails, AllAfrica.com, 17 September, 2013.)

As the World Health Organisation in its 2014 GLAAS report Investing in water and sanitation : increasing access, reducing inequalities ((WHO) for UN-water global analysis of sanitation and drinking-water (GLAAS)) in its main finding 3 puts it:

“GLAAS 2014 results highlight that most sector decisions are not evidence-based due to the widespread lack of capacity for monitoring, inconsistent or fragmented gathering of data and limited use of information management systems and analysis. The vast majority of surveyed countries have no comprehensive process in place to track funding to water and sanitation. Consequently, countries are unable to confirm whether funding was directed to investment needs, nor credibly report back on whether they have met financial allocation targets, for example, related to the eThekwini declaration. More importantly, data are often not used to inform decision-making: less than one third of countries report having data available which is analyzed and used for a majority of decisions in allocating resources in the sanitation sector. If plans exist for reducing inequalities in access by targeting disadvantaged groups, the outcomes are commonly left unmonitored. Less than half of countries track progress in extending sanitation and drinking-water services to the poor (Table 2.2).”

And its main finding 8 reads:

“The vast majority of those without improved sanitation are poorer people living in rural areas. Progress on rural sanitation – where it has occurred – has primarily benefitted the non-poor, resulting in inequalities. Coupled with these high needs, expenditures for rural sanitation are estimated to comprise less than 10% of total WASH finance (Figure 4.7) and the proportion of external aid flows for basic services is declining (Figure 5.12) ”

On the key issue of monitoring the report highlights at p. 16 :

“WASH decision makers are, generally, not in a position to plan and implement programmes based on good, accessible data. There are critical gaps in data collection, availability, quality and use of data for informed decision-making despite most countries indicating that they have an established monitoring framework in place.

“Countries report that monitoring and surveillance systems that should be tracking the quality and performance of services, as well as financial and human resources, are usually insufficient.

“With countries increasingly committed to strengthening efforts to improve access and reduce inequalities among the most disadvantaged population groups, improvements to monitoring systems are desperately needed.

“In sanitation, for which there is clear political will and ambitious regional targets in place, as well as dedicated government structures, monitoring is weak and, in many cases, almost non-existent for regulatory surveillance, particularly in rural areas. ”

On affordability of services, the report comments at p. 39 :

“Low-income populations, disadvantaged population groups and rural communities commonly do not have the financial means to obtain or connect to existing water and sanitation services, let alone pay for the cost to sustain these services. ”

The 2014 GLAAS report comes from the United Nations system, which has a major vested interest in promoting the “achievement” of the Millennium goals. Notwithstanding all the serious limitations cited above, the statistical information provided by participating countries is itself not questioned in the report.

Pages 129-149 of the UNIFEM report Making the MDGs Work for All deal with Millennium Goal 7.

Page 132 reads:

«Water is both a fundamental and inalienable human right and a public good, which governments are obliged by international law to provide to all. It should not be a marketable commodity. Access to sanitation facilities is also a fundamental human right that protects health and human dignity. ....... However, in poor countries, international financial institutions have imposed on some governments water privatization policies and user-pays fees for access to basic sanitation facilities as a condition of loans, without regard to the gender or human rights implications. As a result, the poor—especially women and girls and particularly those in urban slums—are denied access to the privatized water and sanitation »

“Under international human rights law, water is implicitly and explicitly protected as a human right. In the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the two 1966 International Covenants on, respectively, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), water is not mentioned explicitly, but it is regarded as an integral component of other recognised rights, such as the rights to life, to adequate standard of living, to health, to housing and to food (Box 1). Access to water enjoys explicit protection under the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.” (Source : World Water Day, 2001 World Health Organisation WHO, 2001-2004, implemented by IRC.

On 26^th July 2010, the 64^th Session of the United Nations assembly in New York declared the human right to water and sanitation.

See also : The privatisation of water is a violation of human rights (In French) , Centre Europe-Tiers Monde (CETIM), Geneva, 2002, submission to the United Nations Sub-committee on Human Rights, ONU : E/CN.4/Sub.2/2002/NGO/11. The article cites some well-known examples of the results of the privatisation of water. There are also others, for example the cases of large towns in India.

2. Opinion.

Write one page on the relationship between the approach set out in articles 26 g), 54 l), and 66 of the Plan of Implementation of the Millennium Goals is on the one hand and the results of privatisation of the sector on the other.

A good general introduction to sanitation and hygiene with reference to the Millennium Development Goals and in particular in the African context is provided in Reaching the MDG target for sanitation in Africa – a call for realism., Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark, Danida, Copenhagen, February, 2010 ISBN: 978-87-7087-299-7.

Figure 5 on p. 6 of the report Progress on Sanitation and Drinking-Water 2013 Update, (WHO and UNCEF, details) is headed : “The global population practising open defecation is slowly declining.” The graph lines over the 21 years (1990-2011) covered are almost static for much of the world. The graph for Eastern Asia is mentioned in the key but not shown in the figure. If it had been, it would be evident that most claimed advances in relation to improved sanitation took place there. Figure 3 page 5 of the report admits that while 1.1 billion people in urban areas are claimed to have received access to improved sanitation, “the urban population increased by 1.3 billion”. Which means either that the urban un-served in 1990 were still un-served in 2011 or that people migrating from un-served rural areas remained un-served in the areas they migrated to. Definitions of the terms “improved”, “shared”, and “unimproved” are not given. Improved services at any level are sometimes (not to say “often”) abandoned because they are not properly maintained. The on-going use of structures and their supply are two different things. Which of the two the report claims to be measuring is not stated.

“The 2012 MDG report published by the UN stated that “the world has met the MDG drinking water target, five years ahead of schedule”- [while] 783 million people were deemed to remain “without access to an improved drinking water source.” In May 2013, the World Health Organization published a new report which raised to 2.4 billion the official number of people without access to drinking water, explaining that “improved drinking water sources” -defined in the UN report as sources that are not shared with animals –do not always provide safe drinking water. The difference with the 2012 estimate is 306%.” (Coyne, B. et al (ed.), Towards Sustainable Development that Leaves No-one Behind : The Challenge of the Post-2015 Agenda, Working Paper, International ATD Fourth World Movement, New York, Pierrelaye and Geneva, June 2013, p. 10)

The Millennium target on sanitation is covered by articles 7 (m) and 8 of section II «Poverty eradication » of the Plan of Implementation of the Millennium Goals.

Article 7) (m) declares action should be taken to :

“ (m) Increase access to sanitation to improve human health and reduce infant and child mortality, prioritizing water and sanitation in national sustainable development strategies and poverty reduction strategies where they exist.”

Article 8 continues :

“8. The provision of clean drinking water and adequate sanitation is necessary to protect human health and the environment. In this respect, we agree to halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water (as outlined in the Millennium Declaration) and the proportion of people who do not have access to basic sanitation, which would include actions at all levels to:

(a) Develop and implement efficient household sanitation systems;

(b) Improve sanitation in public institutions, especially schools;

(d) Promote education and outreach focused on children, as agents of behavioural change;

(e) Promote affordable and socially and culturally acceptable technologies and practices;

(f) Develop innovative financing and partnership mechanisms;

(g) Integrate sanitation into water resources management strategies.”

The issue of sanitation is also addressed in rather generic terms in article 25 of section IV. Protection and managing the natural resource of economic and social development Article 25 has already been cited above in connection with drinking water.

“25. Launch a programme of actions, with financial and technical assistance, to achieve the Millennium development goal on safe drinking water. In this respect, we agree to halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water, as outlined in the Millennium Declaration, and the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation, which would include actions at all levels to:

(a) Mobilize international and domestic financial resources at all levels, transfer technology, promote best practice and support capacity-building for water

………

(d) Intensify water pollution prevention to reduce health hazards and protect ecosystems by introducing technologies for affordable sanitation and industrial and domestic wastewater treatment, by mitigating the effects of groundwater contamination and by establishing, at the national level, monitoring systems and effective legal frameworks;”

Paragraph 54 l) of section VI on Health and Sustainable Development has also already been cited above in connection with drinking water. Paragraph 54 l) is the only reference to sanitation in section VI on «Health and Sustainable Development”.

“54 (l) Transfer and disseminate, on mutually agreed terms, including through public-private multisector partnerships, with international financial support, technologies for safe water, sanitation and waste management for rural and urban areas in developing countries and countries with economies in transition, taking into account country-specific conditions and gender equality, including specific technology needs of women;”

The list of references to sanitation in the Plan of Implementation of the Millennium Goals is completed with articles 66 a) :

“(a) Provide access to potable domestic water, hygiene education and improved sanitation and waste management at the household level through initiatives to encourage public and private investment in water supply and sanitation that give priority to the needs of the poor within stable and transparent national regulatory frameworks provided by Governments, while respecting local conditions involving all concerned stakeholders and monitoring the performance and improving the accountability of public institutions and private companies; and develop critical water supply, reticulation and treatment infrastructure, and build capacity to maintain and manage systems to deliver water and sanitation services in both rural and urban areas;”>

3. Opinion.

Write two pages on your understanding of the words “Develop innovative financing and partnership mechanisms” (art. 8.f) above), the mobilisation of “international and domestic financial resources” and“ transfer technology” (art. 25 a) above) and “industrial and domestic wastewater treatment”(art. 25 d). Why do you think that precisely these points have been stressed in the only reference to sanitation in Section VI on Health and Sustainable Development and in the only reference on sanitation in Section VIII on sanitation in Africa?

“Research has shown that for every dollar invested in sanitation, up to $34 more in health, education, and social and economic development costs can be saved.” Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Water and Sanitation of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in A plea for dignity and health for all, speech held on 21 November 2007 for the International Year of Sanitation 2008, UNICEF.

4. Opinion.

On one page explain why, in your view, if investment in sanitation gives such good returns, it has not taken place.

In so far as slum dwellers are concerned, following advanced concepts of integrated development, slums can be eliminated altogether. The first step towards achieving that goal is to improve the quality of lives of people living in rural areas so as to bring about a stop in migration towards the large towns, and in a second stage the return of slum dwellers to their zones of origin. After that, the principles of integrated development would be applied to those remaining in the slums in the towns.

There is only one reference to slums in the entire Plan of Implementation of the Millennium Goals. It is in article 11, part of Section II on poverty eradication :

“Target D of MDG 7 aims at “achieving a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.” It was formulated in 2000 on the basis of the estimated figure of 100 million people living in slums worldwide, which turned out to be considerably underestimated. In 2012, the MDG report by UN stated that 760 million people lived in slums in 2000 –a 760% difference. ” %.” (Coyne, B. et al (ed.), Towards Sustainable Development that Leaves No-one Behind : The Challenge of the Post-2015 Agenda, Working Paper, International ATD Fourth World Movement, New York, Pierrelaye and Geneva, June 2013, p. 10)

“11. By 2020, achieve a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, as proposed in the "Cities without slums" initiative. This would include actions at all levels to:

(a) Improve access to land and property, to adequate shelter and to basic services for the urban and rural poor, with special attention to female heads of household;

(b) Use low-cost and sustainable materials and appropriate technologies for the construction of adequate and secure housing for the poor, with financial and technological assistance to developing countries, taking into account their culture, climate, specific social conditions and vulnerability to natural disasters;

(c) Increase decent employment, credit and income for the urban poor, through appropriate national policies, promoting equal opportunities for women and men;

(d) Remove unnecessary regulatory and other obstacles for micro-enterprises and the informal sector;

(e) Support local authorities in elaborating slum upgrading programmes within the framework of urban development plans and facilitate access, particularly for the poor, to information on housing legislation.”

Pages 129-149 of the UNIFEM report Making the MDGs Work for All cover Millennium Goal 7 and offer some useful proposals on slum development.

On page 136 the report cites an article entitled «Why focus on women ?», by the United Nations Human Rights Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat), 2003 stating that: “Almost one third of the world’s women are homeless or live in inadequate housing”

The UNIFEM report continues:

It has been estimated that only 2 percent of property is owned by women. In many countries, domestic violence is the main reason for homelessness among women—lack of secure tenure means that it is the women who become homeless, rather than the perpetrators. According to the UN Special Reporter on Adequate Housing, ‘a separated or divorced woman with no land and a family to care for often ends up in an urban slum, where her security of tenure is at best questionable’.208……

“While security of tenure and access to housing are very important to women living in slums, on their own they will not make the significant improvement to their lives that Goal 7 promises. The safe water and adequate sanitation services should reach women in the slums as elsewhere, but the lack of basic transportation and communications infrastructure and other services, including health care, are also major issues for women living in slums. The location of many slums in environmentally fragile areas subject to flooding, landslides, mudslides, industrial pollution and other forms of environmental degradation makes it difficult, if not unlikely, for even the limited benefits under Goal 7 to reach those living in slums in these areas. The problems of urban slums are problems of urban planning—or the lack of it—and can only be addressed at a political level, where women and those living in slums are poorly represented. In general, they are also ill-equipped to influence the substantial vested economic interests that are largely responsible for the continued existence of slums.”

The following list of strategies for slums, taking women’s rights into account, is to be found on page 145 of the report Making the MDGs Work for All.

« use micro-finance to improve urban infrastructure and services and ensure that women take the lead, particularly in the design of water supply, sanitation and local environment infrastructure;

develop partnerships between the public sector and women’s groups to provide improved urban services;

provide gender-responsive rights-based technical advisory services to community-based projects and programmes to increase women's access to urban services;

support women’s organizations and/or communities to provide group housing for homeless women in slums;

support women’s organizations and/or communities in slums to provide secure shelter for homeless women who are victims of domestic violence. »

5.Opinion.

On one page explain how the approach suggested by UNIFEM to improve the lives of slum dwellers is alternative to the one presented in article 11 of the Plan of Implementation of the Millennium Goals.

On page 153, the UNIFEM report cites:

«Alternative policies are needed to secure economic stability without sacrificing the welfare of working people or entrenching existing gender inequalities. It notes that the most difficult challenge is political: to create the policy space needed to support sustainable poverty reduction, gender equity and decent work for all.» Globalization, economic policy and employment: gender implications. Heintz, J. 2006. Geneva, International Labour Office.

◄ ►

◄ Second block : Problems to be solved.

◄ Index : Diploma in Integrated Development (Dip. Int. Dev)

◄ List of key words.

◄ List of references.

◄ Course chart.

◄ Technical aspects.

◄ Courses available.

◄ Homepage Bakens Verzet.

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