Turning the tap on water

A week before the opening of the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille, the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) announced that MDG 7c - which seeks to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015 - has been met globally. This announcement should be cause for celebration amongst populations, governments and civil society as a whole. So why, then, did this important achievement go almost unnoticed?

Is it due to the concern that donor interest may decline once the target has been met? Or to possible skepticism over the findings of the JMP report? The document monitors the number of people accessing “improved” water points. However, as Gerard Payen, member of UNSG's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation states, ‘improved sources’ doesn’t mean ‘safe water’. And indeed, according to Water for People’s Ned Breslin, the report’s conclusions run the risk of being overestimated because they do not take into consideration the functionality of access points nor the quality of the water distributed.

The cool reception is probably a mix of the above combined with the fact that this positive global result masks worrying geographical disparities.

In sub-Saharan Africa, progress towards the target is off-track. While 273 million people in the region have gained access to drinking water since 1990, close to 40% of the population - mostly rural dwellers and poor people - have not. And the region is even further from achieving adequate access to sanitation, with 500 million people effectively neglected. Not to mention the unacceptable fact that around 750,000 children under five die every year from unsafe water. Add to this the burden that poor water supply puts on women and girls, who are usually in charge of fetching the precious liquid, and the consequences of the current situation on other MDGs – from health to education - become clear.

What were the solutions offered in Marseille to tackle the issue of access to clean water in Africa? First, according to Bai-Mas Tall, Executive Secretary of the African Minister’s Council on Water, African Ministers now recognize that ‘water is a driving force for economic development’ that can yield high return on investment, in addition to having a great social impact. As a result, investing in water infrastructure at the national and regional levels is a growing priority. Second, African governments are committed to strengthening partnerships between the public and private sectors, as well as with other key stakeholders in order to keep water issues on donors’ agendas and raise the resources necessary to ensure that acceptable levels of safe water provision are reached on the continent. Third, it was recognized that failing to involve local communities in water management will compromise results. In addition to these, the launching of the refinancing of the two financial facilities of the Africa Development Bank for water access and sanitation, particularly in rural areas, was well received with initial pledging exceeding 100 million $, and benefiting from contribution of seven African countries. A remarkable development indeed.

However, time is of the essence. Much remains to be done to reduce access disparities between the rich and the poor, between urban and rural areas, and between men and women. To achieve this feat will require a concerted focus on water in Africa over the next few years. The upcoming Rio+20 Summit in June is a good opportunity to strengthen commitments and place water and sanitation issues at the top of the political agenda.