Huge progress has been made in the past 25 years to provide people with safer water, and as of 2010, over 6 billion of the world’s population has access to improved drinking water sources, up from 4 billion in 1990. Likewise, sanitation coverage has also increased in the developing world, from 36% of the population in 1990 to 56% in 2010. Although this is commendable, over 1.1 billion individuals still lack access to a water from a clean, safe source, and over 2.6 billion people do not have access to toilets and other adequate sanitation facilities. This lack of access is a primary cause of water contamination and water-borne diseases.
From an urban perspective, and especially in the developing world, challenges related to water and sanitation will magnify in the future due to an ever growing city population needing to share already insufficient and poorly managed resources. Urban water distribution and sanitation systems are all too often derelict and unable to cope with the growing demographics, and many of the urban poor tend to be excluded from these services anyway. Paradoxically, low-income urban dwellers have to pay high prices for water, sometimes up to 50 times the price paid by higher income groups.
Access to safe water for everybody
Despite the fact that there is sufficient clean freshwater in the world for everyone’s essential personal and domestic needs, these resources are unevenly distributed. Today, 11% of the world’s population still lack access to water that is safe for consumption. This figure rises to over 40% in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, in densely populated areas, the absence of proper sanitation facilities almost inevitably leads to massive pollution and contamination of the available water resources, for instance through the improper disposal of fecal waste. Unclean water poses serious health hazard risks, which have tangible impacts on education and economic activities due to illness impairment, especially amongst the most vulnerable population groups such as the urban poor. Prioritizing water and sanitation issues is therefore crucial in the overall urban development effort.
Strong frameworks for better development
Improving the water and sanitation situation in an urban setting is not an easy task, as the required infrastructure, either new or upgraded, needs to be accommodated by already existing structures, such as roads or buildings, but must also be able to sustain future urban developments and expansion. The intrusive nature of these projects, often involving disruptive and expensive construction work, poses a major challenge to these development efforts.
This calls for strong legislation, guidelines, and building codes, which can only be instituted and monitored by national and local governments. They are the key actors in setting up the conditions of sound development in the water and sanitation sectors. Authorities not only need to endorse the roles of policy makers and resources allocators, but must also function as regulators of service provision to guarantee universal access, quality standards, and fair pricing. This becomes even more relevant in places where water and sanitation services are externalized to the private sector.
UN-Habitat’s water and sanitation (WATSAN) programmes
Bolstered by these insights, UN-Habitat set up high priority water and sanitation (WATSAN) programmes, now under the responsibility of its Urban Basic Services Branch, to help the UN member states attain the water and sanitation targets set by the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) to “halve by 2015 the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation.”
Through these programmes, UN-Habitat provides both policy, technical, and financial support to governments and local authorities, thus contributing to the achievement of these internationally agreed goals. Focus is particularly set on the urban poor, in order to facilitate equitable social, economic, and environmental development.
UN-Habitat’s water and sanitation (WATSAN) programmes
Project: Improving Water Supply Sanitation & Hygiene in Mzuzu City and
Karonga Town
Funded by: European Commission
Duration: January 2015 to May 2017
Country: Malawi
Project implementation is in Mzuzu City and Karonga Town in Malawi
by: UN-Habitat, Northern Region Water Board (NRWB), Center for Community Organization and Development (CCODE), Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development (the government ministry with the mandate to provide water and sanitation services), Karonga District Council, Mzuzu City Council and The University of Mzuzu,
Objectives of the project
To increase access to sustainable water supply for 51, 000 people (11,000 women, 10,000 men and 30,000 school children)
To increase access to improved sanitation for 51,000 people in 11 schools and eight settlements in Mzuzu City and Karonga Town
To promote hygiene and sanitation awareness and practice through two approaches Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) in eight communities and School Led Total Sanitation (SLTS) in 11 schools
To increase the capacity of local institutions and communities to sustainably operate and manage WASH facilities.
Project: The Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation (LVWATSAN) Mwanza project: Mobilization and Institutional Facilitation of Sanitation (UN-Habitat)
Funded by: European Investment Bank (EIB), Agence Française de Développement and the United Republic of Tanzania
Duration: January 2015 to November 2018
Country: United Republic of Tanzania
Project implementation is in Mwanza City, Magu Town, Misungwi Town, Lamadi Town, Bukoba Town, Musoma Town, Mwanza informal settlements -Kilimahewa, Kwimba and Unguja in Mwanza, Tanzania.
by: UN-Habitat, United Republic of Tanzania, Ministry of Water and Irrigation in Tanzania, Ministry of Finance and Plannning, Mwanza Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Authority (MWAUWASA), Bukoba Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Authority (BUWASA), Musoma Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Authority (MUWASA), Mwanza City Council and Ilemela Municipal Council.
Objectives of the project
The overall objective is to protect the environment of Lake Victoria and wellbeing of the population in the Lake Basin.
The project aims at addressing sanitation challenges within the lake basin by reducing the level of pollution flowing into Lake Victoria through an improvement in water supply and sanitation infrastructure in the urban centres around the Lake.
The goals of UN-Habitat WATSAN programmes and initiatives
- Enhance awareness of water and sanitation issues and encourage the application of guide documents, norms, standards, and toolkits by the water and sanitation sector and UN-Habitat partners.
- Form strategic partnerships among key water and sanitation stakeholders such as the United Nations, development banks, donors, urban centres, utilities, non-governmental organizations, and communities to promote increasing levels of investment in UN-Habitat programmes.
- Train water and sanitation sector stakeholders to enable them to develop, provide, and manage improved water and sanitation services.
- Encourage water and sanitation institutions in participating countries to replicate local initiatives as a consequence of increased investment flows and with the involvement of local communities.
- Work with water and sanitation institutions in participating countries to develop enhanced capacity to track progress towards internationally agreed targets based on improved information systems and enhanced monitoring frameworks.
- Include the human settlement dimension in the World Water Development Reports. Publish the Water and Sanitation in the World’s Cities reports and ensure that pro-poor and gender focused governance frameworks are available and in use.
Water and sanitation goals set by the UN
In 2000, the member states of UN General Assembly committed themselves to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). That pledge included the objective to reduce the number of people without access to safe drinking water by 50% in 2015. During the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002, participating governments renewed their commitment to this goal, even expanding the goal to include basic sanitation as well.
Furthermore, in 2002, to address the current water and sanitation issues, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), a body of the UN Human Rights Council, drafted General Comment N˚15, a policy on water and sanitation that states that access to safe water and sanitation is a universal human right. Although not legally binding, General Comment N˚15 declares that water should be sufficient, continuously available and safe to use, for both personal and domestic uses. Likewise, water and sanitation services should be accessible within one’s immediate vicinity and affordable to all without any discrimination.
Guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) for drinking water quality, which provide guidance on good practices for ensuring that drinking water is adequate for human health can be found at the Water Sanitation Health website of the WHO. Every person needs a minimum of 20 litres of water per day to meet the minimum basic requirements, although this amount may still lead to health concerns. Governments and authorities should therefore aim to guarantee at least 50 to 100 litres of water per person per day.
UN-Habitat’s Water and Sanitation Trust Fund
In 2003, to support its WATSAN initiatives, UN-Habitat established the Water and Sanitation Trust Fund (WSTF) which currently supports water and sanitation projects in 27 countries (as of 2012) involving a wide range of partners, including families, communities, governments, and like-minded organizations. The WSTF is a consolidated fund that eases access to investment funding and provides an opportunity to donors to improve their aid affordability.
The main focus of the fund and related programmes is currently improving delivery of water and sanitation in Africa and Asia through two regional programmes, Water for African Cities, and Water for Asian Cities. These initiatives promote policy dialogue, information exchange, water education, and awareness raising. They also include progress monitoring towards achieving the MDG water and sanitation targets as well as promoting best practices and replicable model-setting initiatives, notably through the Lake Victoria Region Water Initiative and the Sanitation and Mekong Regional Water and Sanitation Initiative.
Besides the Trust Fund, UN-Habitat also supports water and sanitation systems rehabilitation during humanitarian emergencies.
Global Water Operators' Partnerships Alliance
Water Operators’ Partnerships (WOPs) are peer-support arrangements between water and sanitation operators, carried out on a not-for-profit basis, to support the operators’ capacity to provide quality services to all. The Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance (GWOPA) is the global mechanism set up to promote and support WOPs worldwide and led by UN-Habitat. GWOPA is the global leader in WOPs promotion, facilitation and coordination, and the principle source for WOPs knowledge and guidance. It aims to see effective WOPs contribute to meeting national and global water and sanitation objectives including those relating to the Sustainable Development Goals and the Human Right to Water. Find out more: gwopa.org / info@gwopa.org
What are WOPs? Find out here English | French | Spanish
Read the GWOPA strategy paper 2013-2017
The Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation (LVWATSAN-Mwanza) Project: Mobilization and Institutional Facilitation of Sanitation (UN-Habitat)
European Investment Bank (EIB) and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) have partnered together with the Government of Tanzania and UN-Habitat in implementing a project dubbed “The Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation (LVWATSAN-Mwanza) Project: Mobilization and Institutional Facilitation of Sanitation (UN-Habitat)” whose goal is to reduce the level of pollution flowing into Lake Victoria through an improvement in water supply and sanitation infrastructure in the urban centres around the Lake and a pilot initiative of up-grading low income informal settlements in this city. Read more..
