SBR- Content.pmd - INBO

State of the Basin Report - 2003Box 1.LMB commitments to International Development Targets for Water Supplyand Sanitation• By 2015 to reduce by one-half the proportion of people without access to hygienicsanitation facilities.• By 2015 to reduce by one-half the proportion of people without sustainable accessto adequate quantities of affordable and safe water.• By 2025 to provide water, sanitation and hygiene for all.Source: WHO/UNICEF/WSSCC 2001.During the 1990s, it becameincreasingly clear worldwide thatattempts to expand water supplywere not having the desired impact.Firstly the facilities were not alwaysused, maintained, or providing thehealth and other benefits that wereintended. Secondly, the rate of newconstruction was not keeping upwith growing populations.Box 2. The Dublin PrinciplesThe following principles have been adopted bygovernments within the basin as well as internationally.Principle No. 1 - Fresh water is a finite and vulnerableresource, essential to sustain life, development and theenvironment.Principle No. 2 - Water development and managementshould be based on a participatory approach, involvingusers, planners and policy-makers at all levels.Principle No. 3 - Women play a central part in theprovision, management and safeguarding of water.Principle No. 4 - Water has an economic value in all itscompeting uses and should be recognised as an economicgood.Source: ICWE 1992New approaches developedinternationally, and endorsed byLMB governments, call forcommunities (with the exception ofthe more affluent urban areas), toown and manage facilities, theprivate sector to provide goods andservices, and governments tofacilitate the process. In rural andlow-income urban areas, demandresponsiveapproaches allow beneficiaries to guide and fully participate in making key investmentdecisions. These are in accord with the internationally-adopted Dublin Principles set out in Box 2.In rural areas wells and spring water are preferable tosurface water which is often polluted with human andanimal wastesAlthough the principle that users should investin water and sanitation services has nowbecome well-established, in Lao PDR andCambodia, for example, governmentstrategies recognise that where communitiesand users cannot afford to fully financeschemes, the government should contributesignificantly towards their costs. Whenappropriate technology is used andcommunities take responsibility for managingand sustaining systems, this assurescommunities of a basic level of service.However, if users want more than a basic levelof service, they are expected to pay for it.246