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9. Water and Sanitation

What we agreed at Gleneagles

The G8 will increase aid for water and sanitation.

The G8 will step up implementation of theG8 Water Action Plan – agreed at the 2003 summit in Evian.

How is the UK doing?

We are on track to fulfil our Gleneagles spending commitments to double our assistance for water and sanitation in Africa to £95 million a year by 2007/08, and to £200 million a year by 2010/11.

In November 2006 the UK formally recognised water as a human right, calling on partner governments to support access to safe and affordable water for all. At the same time, the Department for International Development (DFID) published a Call for a Global Action setting out a practical framework to help galvanise international action to make progress on water and sanitation. To implement this, we are working with other donors – including the World Bank, African Development Bank and United Nations (UN).

New commitments on water and sanitation were made at the April 2007 World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings - co-hosted by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the UK.

How the International Community is doing

Over a billion people still do not have access to safe water and 2.6 billion are without basic sanitation. These numbers have not changed since they were last measured in 2004. While more people now have access to water and sanitation, because of population growth the number of those without has not fallen. Although the water Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target is still on track, the rate of progress is slowing while the sanitation MDG target remains seriously off track.

However, other donors – including the World Bank, Germany, France and the Netherlands – are scaling up support on water and sanitation. The Asian Development Bank has made a commitment to double water investment to over $2 billion and has launched the Water Financing Partnership Facility. The African Development Bank's Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI) aims to increase coverage of safe water and basic sanitation to 80% by 2015. It has now approved programmes for eleven countries, with a further ten to follow in 2007.

What should happen next?

At the April 2007 World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings donors committed to improve the coordination of their actions at a global level to deliver a greater impact on the ground. Practical next steps include:

An annual global monitoring report to be prepared by UN Water and its members. This will set out progress towards achieving the water and sanitation MDG targets and be launched with a special focus on sanitation in 2008;

One global meeting each year to discuss this report and agree future action. This does not mean a new meeting but rather identifying one from amongst the existing international meetings. Future meetings will be agreed at the Stockholm World Water Week in August 2007;

The need to identify one lead UN body for water and sanitation in each country to coordinate actions by all UN agencies.

There was also recognition that many countries were already making progress on national plans and improving coordination.

The UK will now focus on turning these commitments into practical outcomes.

Where it is making a difference:

In Ethiopia, the government has launched a Universal Access Plan (UAP), which aims to achieve 100% coverage for both water supply and sanitation by 2012. Through the EU Water Initiative, a national multi-stakeholder annual sector review was held in 2006 and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministries of Water Resources, Health and Education. This set out broad responsibilities of each ministry in water and sanitation and established co-ordination across these sectors. The UK is boosting support for the programme and aims to deliver a £100 million over the next five years – working through the World Bank and African Development Bank.

Last updated: 12 March 2008