Prudent management of our water sector

Prudent management of our water sector
By Editor
Friday June 27, 2008 [04:00]

UNLESS we pay special attention to the challenges our people are facing in the water sector, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to bring about sustainable socioeconomic development to our country. We are well aware of the staggering human and economic cost of our crisis in water and sanitation. It is the poor who feel the most immediate and damaging effects of this crisis.

Not only does this crisis hurt the poor disproportionately - it keeps them poor too. Therefore, ensuring that the poor have access to water is central to achieving all the Millennium Development Goals.

Attaining the goals, including those for water and sanitation, is possible. We do have the knowledge and we can build or mobilise the financial capacity required to address the water crisis.

What is missing is sufficient political will, and concerted and agreed action. This is where our commitment is needed.

We say this because our water crisis is attributable much more to an absence of power, wealth and control than to an absence of water.

We have large rivers, big lakes, vast wetlands and limited, but widespread groundwater resources. Moreover, we have a high potential for hydroelectric power development.

Those most affected - the poor, women and children - don't get enough clean, affordable water because they have the least voice in policy and decision-making.

And as Transparency International Zambia has emphasised, governance is the key to addressing this inequality. Sustaining inclusive economic growth requires the development of water resources.

But investment into water management and major water infrastructure often excludes or even negatively impacts the poor, magnifying inequalities and widening the economic gap between the rich and poor. Pro-poor impact must take greater precedence in policy-making, as well as investment in water.

Improving water governance and boosting investment in water brings returns in a broad spectrum of human development: within a decade, it would almost certainly significantly reduce income poverty, hunger, disease, child mortality, gender inequality and environmental degradation.

We need a governance strategy which strategically targets accelerating the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goal targets on water to address the crisis and this includes financial and human resource commitments.

There is no question that we can mobilise resources required to address this water crisis. There is also no question that the required investment would bring tremendous returns.

And it is important to refer ourselves back to a statement in the Africa Water Vision of 2025, which says:

"It is apparent that water and socio-economic development are mutually dependent on each other. They can be nodes in a vicious cycle that puts societies in a downward spiral of poor economic development and poor access to safe and adequate water supply and sanitation.

Alternatively, they can be nodes in a virtuous cycle, reinforcing each other in an autocatalytic way, and leading to an upward spiral in which improved socio-economic development produces resources needed for improved development of water resources that, in turn, buttress and stimulate further socio-economic development."

We believe this is a very apt statement that depicts the vital nature of water, and nowhere is this statement more relevant than in our context.

Given this rather poignant linkage between water and socio-economic development therefore, it is evident that the efficient and sustainable use as well as the protection of water resources must underpin the belief that is enshrined in the New Partnership for Africa's Development by African heads of states that we can break free of poverty and overcome the 'development trap' that confines us to a vicious cycle of underdevelopment, conflict and suffering.

And efficient and sustainable use of water resources would catalyse our rejuvenation and lead to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

We must however face several challenges if the envisaged desirable outcomes for the water sector are to be achieved.

Financing the interventions required to meet these challenges is a huge challenge by itself, given our economic context. Huge amounts of money would be required to be able to meet these challenges. The huge financing requirement may further compound the path to ensure successful outcomes.

It is however our conviction that, given clear policies and strategies and real commitments to implementation, the challenges of the Millennium Development Goals could be met, and water would help eradicate poverty, reduce water-related diseases and help us achieve sustainable development.

We will not make much progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals unless we develop approaches that have a common goal of improved water supply and sanitation services.

Action should be undertaken to increase public awareness and strengthen the political will needed for sustainable development and management of water resources. And the building of human and institutional capacity is crucial for the implementation of whatever schemes we come up with.

The level of financial resources needed calls for a renewed, bold commitment and approach by all stakeholders. In this respect, innovative ways of raising finance are required.


It is clear to us that the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without adequate water and sanitation by 2015 cannot be met without a major paradigm shift in this sector.

And if increased investment is critical, even more critical is the urgent need to find more successful mechanisms for providing the poor with water and sanitation. It is interesting to note that in the 1980s, corruption and poor governance were the major reasons cited by most aid agencies and development banks for withdrawing from large-scale capital projects in this sector.

Many local authorities still underestimate the importance of inclusive practices of good governance in priotising the delivery of services to the people. Successful water demand management at the level of the local authority can reap benefits for the whole community.

We must wake up to these realities; the international community has set the targets, but if we are not to meet this challenge, then we must be prepared to look at everything anew.

We must reassess our strategies; we must look at our policies again and ask why we failed in the past; we must innovate strategies of meeting global goals through local action; we must invest more funds in water and sanitation infrastructure.

Most of all, we must wake up to the fact that one of our greatest challenges is poverty.
As water is essential to life, lack of it can undermine human security.

We should now double our efforts in this sector. Good governance needs to be promoted and capacity must be built for us to pursue appropriate water policies, and financial resources should be properly directed to the water sector in a more efficient and effective way, in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in the water and sanitation sector, and to reverse the current trend of environmental degradation through the protection and balanced management of natural resources.

The greatest challenge lies in building competent, efficient, business-like, and service-oriented institutions. But we shouldn't forget that sustainable service provision is only possible where customers themselves cover the cost of operation and maintenance, capital costs recovery is not always possible, but often requires predictable public subsidies.

If we are ever to attain the Millennium Development Goals, greater levels of finance will need to be raised, and sound systems of governance should be in place to manage them.

There is need for us to realise that supplying clean water to people, at the scale required to achieve international targets, would require more than laying some pipes. To attain internationally agreed water targets all sources of finance should be tapped. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals would require us to at least double the existing finance.

And there is no question that a prerequisite for achieving these targets would be an improvement of the sector’s governance, better cost recovery and some national public funding. And whatever we do, we should not ignore financing options to reach the poor. Economic growth depends in the very first place on social progress.