Will the Millennium Development Goal target on water and sanitation be met?
In September 2000, 189 UN Member States adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), setting clear, time-bound targets for making progress on the most pressing development issues. Goal 7 is to ensure environmental sustainability, and one of its targets related directly to water. The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development added a sanitation target, which is now included as part of the MDGs:
To halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
The water part of the target is on-track in global terms. However, there is slow progress in sub-Saharan Africa on the water target, with 42% of the population still unserved. There is also stalled action on sanitation in most developing regions, and if the 1990-2002 trend holds, the world will miss the sanitation target by half a billion people. This would mean that 2.4 billion people will be without improved sanitation in 2015, almost as many as there are currently. Many poor people are still dying every day just because they don’t have safe water to drink and do not live in hygienic conditions.
What are the main reasons for insufficient progress?
Progress can only be made if international donors, national governments and civil society groups all play a part and work together in partnership. The research of Tearfund, and of other organisations, has shown that problems both at the international and the national level have hindered progress in this area. Some examples of these problems are listed below:
National level
- Corruption due to a lack of transparency and accountability can lead to the loss of funds for water, sanitation and hygiene from government budgets. Civil society groups need to play their part in holding local and national government to account.
- Water, sanitation and hygiene are often given insufficient priority in government budgets and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), despite being a top priority for poor people. Civil Society groups need to engage with the PRSP consultation and other relevant processes to ensure that governments allocate a reasonable proportion of the national budget to these issues.
- Poor coordination between the various government ministries with some responsibility for these issues (such as ministries for health, the environment and water) can hinder progress. Also, there is often poor coordination between national and local government, between government and NGOs working in the sector, and between various NGOs themselves. Good national coordination mechanisms are vital.
- Water programmes frequently focus heavily on urban areas, resulting in poor access to water, sanitation and hygiene in rural areas. Civil society groups should try to ensure that national policies and programmes give a balanced coverage of urban and rural areas.
- If inappropriate or costly technology is installed without proper training and support, water supply often breaks down quickly due to difficulty in obtaining spare parts or carrying out repairs. It is vital that appropriate technology and training are provided.
These issues and others are discussed in more detail in the Tearfund briefing papers: Making every drop count: Financing water, sanitation and hygiene in Sierra Leone; and Making every drop count: Financing water, sanitation and hygiene in Ethiopia.
International level
- Donors are not currently giving enough money to the water and sanitation sector for the MDGs to be met. There has been an overall downward trend in funding for the sector since 1997. Overall, donors should double the amount of aid going to the sector and should treat it as an equal priority for funding as health and education.
- Donors are not giving aid to the water sector in the countries that need it most. Currently none of the countries that are furthest off-track on the water MDG target are among the top ten recipients of aid for water. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most in need of additional aid. Donors should ensure that aid is targeted at the poorest countries.
- Money and time have been wasted on inefficient bureaucracy and on poor coordination among donors. For example, the European Union’s Water Initiative – launched in 2002 – has so far only resulted in a series of meetings without providing, as yet, clean water or sanitation to a single extra person. An Empty Glass is a Tearfund and WaterAid report on the EU Water Initiative
- Many donors prioritise funding for large-scale systems over small-scale systems which are more likely to be aimed at poor communities. It is vital that donors support and supply water programmes which are appropriate to their setting and which reach the poorest people within recipient countries.
Making every drop count: An assessment of donor progress towards the water and sanitation target is a more detailed analysis of the role of international donors in meeting with MDG target on water and sanitation.