Draft first regional report on the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development

Chapter III
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
between 2013 and 2016. Moreover, the proportion of public spending on basic services in that country rose
from 35.3% in 2013 to 39.6% in 2016. It is important to consider that the inability to access drinking water
owing to poverty, ethnicity, race, membership in a particular social group or, in this case, residence in a specific
place, is a violation of the human right to water and sanitation. In this context, the situation of countries with
the lowest levels of availability of drinking water, particularly in rural areas, highlights the fact that water is an
urgent need and that governments must implement programmes to supply it. Nonetheless, a rights-based
assessment suggests that each person has the human right to water and sanitation, implying that the subjects
are active, able to demand and implement decentralized action that forces public authorities to respect minimum
thresholds and to establish plans of action that ensure full access (Bautista, 2013). One example is Uruguay,
where access to drinking water is enshrined in the constitution as a fundamental right, which partly explains
the high percentages of availability in the country (see figure III.27) and the reduction of gaps.
Bear in mind that some of the solutions to improve access to and availability of drinking water do not
always ensure quality of service, mainly in rural areas. There are differences between high- and low-income
households, as for some lower-income households access is intermittent, control over the quality of the water
supplied is limited and the water provided is not always properly disinfected (ECLAC, 2018).
Sanitation is considered one of the inherent uses of water and access to it is not only fundamental to
human dignity, but also to protecting the quality of water resources (Bautista, 2013). Although this concept is not
as developed from a regulatory standpoint, the situation is beginning to change in the human rights field, in light
of factors relating to human dignity that highlight the need for sanitation to be considered more than an accessory
to the human right to water, and moreover, given the role of sanitation as a fundamental requirement for the
sustainability of that human right, as it limits water pollution. Sanitation is understood as a system to collect,
transport, treat and eliminate or reuse human waste and the corresponding promotion of hygiene (Bautista, 2013).
Basic sanitation is the service which reflects the most limited coverage in the region. The percentage of
households with access to sanitation is just under 70% in urban areas, compared with 53% of households
in rural areas (see figure III.28). Although the beginning of the period of analysis is much earlier than the date
of adoption of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development, the <strong>regional</strong> average showed an
increase of 8.5 percentage points between 2006-2009 and 2014-2016, and a reduction from 20 to 16 percentage
points in the gap between urban and rural areas. Between 2013 and 2018 some measures taken in the region
improved sanitation, including: (i) construction and refurbishment of water supply and sanitation systems to
guarantee coverage; (ii) investment in and management of sanitation systems to guarantee the quality and
sustainability of the service; (iii) subsidies to pay for sanitation services (through differentiated tariffs based
on socioeconomic status or geographical location), and (iv) management programmes that guarantee that
waste water is sufficiently treated and reused in appropriate public health conditions.
Analysis at the national level is complex owing to the different definitions of adequate sanitation on which
figures are based. As a result, the gap between urban and rural areas is reversed in some countries, which makes
it more difficult to draw comparisons. These differences in indicator accuracy create comparability issues among
countries of the region. Hence, the standardization of definitions and sources of data is recommended to deepen
the analysis of this indicator both on an aggregate scale and on the basis of geographical disaggregation. The
countries describe the progress made or new measures taken in their <strong>report</strong>s. According to Uruguay, access
to safely managed sanitation —including infrastructure for the washing of hands with soap and water— is
a fundamental service, which is available to more than 99% of that country’s population (Government of
Uruguay, 2017). Guyana <strong>report</strong>ed on the implementation of a programme to improve water supply and sanitation
infrastructure and indicated that the increase in access to sanitation services for people with low incomes is
associated with the replacement of pit latrines with septic tanks (with toilets) (Government of Guyana, 2017).
Brazil <strong>report</strong>ed that there were not only inequalities in access to sanitation between urban and rural areas, but
also between the country’s major regions: in the north east of Brazil, the most disadvantaged region based on
various indicators, access to sanitation is more limited, although gaps have been narrowing, according to 2015
figures (Government of Brazil, 2017). Mexico <strong>report</strong>ed that access to and quality of drinking water, sewage
and sanitation services were improved through its PROAGUA programme and investments were made in
wastewater treatment plants through the 2014-2018 National Water Programme (Government of Mexico, 2018).
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