Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

3 4 0 / M A N A G E M E N T C H A L L E N G E S : S T E W A R D S H I P A N D G O V E R N A N C ERecognizing and Valuing the Many Faces of WaterThe Associations recover investment costs and capital lossesthrough water charges paid by farmers. Box 13.9 describes thesystem in the Seine-Normandy River basin.It should be stressed however that unless adequate capacitiesexist at decentralized levels, such measures are not likely to besuccessful, in particular for protecting the interests of the poor. Forexample, price regulation by the municipalities or local authority mayresult in information asymmetry in developing countries. OECD(1999a) reports that lower-level authorities may not have thedesired leverage to exercise control on service providers. The reportalso notes that the data collection and reporting procedures may alsoget complicated, as is the case in France or Italy. At the same time,the national reports to WSSD indicate that in many developingcountries decentralization is regarded as a vehicle to achieve costrecovery and improved governance. For example in Ghana, thepromulgation of a National Community Water and SanitationProgramme in 1994 first ensured community ownership andmanagement with strong national and regional implementation. Since2000, efforts have been made to further decentralize thedevelopment of water and sanitation projects through districtassemblies. Similarly, Malawi’s national Water Development Policycommits to decentralization and to bring on board communities,water boards, local authorities, the private sector, non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs) and government line agencies.Polluter pays principleAs another tool for valuing water, the polluter pays principle hasrecently been adopted to reduce pollution by levying high charges onpolluters. Apart from the OECD countries, actual implementation ofthis principle is rather slow in other countries of the world. However,a rapid assessment of country status reports to be delivered to theWSSD by fifty-nine countries of the world reveals that this policy hasreceived wide recognition. The polluter pays principle has been dulyincluded in water resources management and development policiesand they are at different stages of implementation. However, itseems equally important to check whether policy and law areactually put into practice through decrees and regulations.Technological optionsWater and sanitation services can be better valued if appropriatetechnologies are selected. Although there is a small variation in thecost of developing different kinds of sanitation services, simpletechnologies such as the simple pit latrine, the ventilated pit latrine(VIP) and the small bore sewers are comparatively cheaper thanother options. The International Research Centre for Water Supplyand Sanitation (IRC) and the World Bank have shown that thesetechnologies can be easily adapted to local conditions. Similarly adrilled borehole for drinking water supply in Asia can cost one fifthof a household connection to a water distribution network(WHO/UNICEF, 2000). Integrated Consultants Nepal (ICON/RWSSFDB,2002) reports that small gravity water supply schemes managed bywater users are one-third the cost of other available options andare also more sustainable. Thus, the challenge is to identify sociallyacceptable and relatively cheap solutions, and to avoid the errorscommitted in many countries with cheap technologies that haveproved to be unsustainable.Targeting Water ValuationAlthough there is a clear need for proper valuation of water, itshould be apparent that when the supply systems are deficient, thepoor are the first to suffer. And as conditions of water stressdevelop, water becomes more expensive for those who are lessprivileged. A disturbing fact is that poor people with the mostlimited access to water supply have to pay significantly more forwater (see table 13.6). The end result of these inequalities is thatwealthier and more powerful persons can benefit from newopportunities at the expense of the poorer and less powerful.Therefore, if the attempt is serious about reducing inequality, it is aprerequisite that water valuation become more effectively ‘targeted’.It is estimated that more than 1.3 billion people in thedeveloping world survive on less than a dollar a day and almost3 billion survive on less than two dollars per day. Although theincome of the upper and the middle classes in nearly everydeveloping country has increased, the number of people living inpoverty is rising at an above-average rate. In order to free peoplefrom the burden of disease and malnutrition, the need for secureaccess to water for the poor has been more strongly recognized.The Hague Ministerial Declaration also recognized thatcombating poverty is the main challenge for achievingequitable and sustainable development, and water plays avital role in relation to human health, livelihood, economicgrowth as well as sustaining ecosystems’ (MinisterialDeclaration, 2000).The legacy of publicly funded water services in excessive quantitiesto the few and at subsidized prices has created inefficientconditions resulting in severe environmental impacts on the resourceitself. In many regions, the poor already subsidize those richest insociety for their water use. According to NGOs lobbying for betterinterpretation of those challenges that were laid out during theSecond World Water Forum: