Sections:
Poverty and water resources management
21 June 2007
This article first appeared in
The
Environmentalist, Issue 48, June 2007.
Water is the stuff of life. It is fundamental to human development yet over a billion people live without a safe and reliable water supply and half the population of developing countries are without proper sanitation. Climate change, rising population, growing urbanisation and economic growth all increase the challenge.
The IPCC findings
The
Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recently produced the second part of the
biggest study yet on the effects of global warming. The report suggested that
rising sea levels, reduced agricultural capacity and growing water shortages
could affect livelihoods and displace up to 200 million people by the middle of
the century, fuelling instability.
The IPCC report says that drought affected areas will likely increase. Extreme rainfall is likely to become more frequent and intense, raising the risk of flooding. The twin spectres of flooding and drought will have implications on sustainable development, the report concluded.
Action by DFID
Part
of the UK Government’s Department for International Development’s (DFID) own
response to the global water crisis is to double aid to water and sanitation
projects in Africa to £95 million a year by 2007/08, and then to more than
double it again to £200 million a year by 2010/11. Water remains a priority for
the department and this year it marked
UN World Water Day (22 March)
with a focus on water scarcity.
DFID commissioned a survey looking at British attitudes to water and water usage to raise public awareness in the UK of the crisis facing people living in water stressed countries. This drew some stark comparisons between water problems in the UK – and we all remember last year’s hosepipe ban – and the realities of daily life in countries like Malawi, where women typically have to walk seven miles a day just to get enough water to feed and bathe their families.
The
2006
United Nations Human Development Report called on developing country
governments and international donors to do more on water and sanitation. In
response DFID published its ‘global
call to action’
(610
kb) in November 2006. This calls on the international community to invest more
money in clean water and sanitation; to ensure funds are spent effectively; and
to make sure the right structures are in place to deliver.
At the international level the ‘call to action’ advocates two things. The first is the delivery of one annual report to monitor progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal – water and sanitation targets. The second is the need for one high-level global annual meeting to decide on action, review what’s being done, highlight the gaps and monitor progress.
Within each developing country there should be:
- one national water and sanitation plan, setting out current levels of access and highlighting what’s required to meet needs;
- one water and sanitation coordinating group, bringing together citizens, governments and donors to identify obstacles and address them; and
- one lead UN body for water and sanitation at national level – this agency would be the only body the UK Government would put its water and sanitation aid through in each country.
Managing the competing demands for water
But
growing population, an urbanising world and economic growth will increase
competition for water. People with more money in their pockets will want more
choice over what they eat and drink. It’s likely that they’ll choose meat and
vegetables over cereals – and this will consume more water. Climate change
increases the challenge.
Temperature rises of even two degrees Celsius will result in between one and
four billion people experiencing water shortages. Managing water resources means
achieving trade-offs between the different demands for water, especially, from
agriculture and industry as our ‘Water: The
Works’(132
kb) diagram begins to show.
Following the ‘Global call to action on water and sanitation’, DFID is now making a major push on water resources management. Our strategy focuses on fighting poverty, coping with the effects of climate change and providing the right level of support at the country and regional levels.
In the recent White Paper ‘Making governance work for poor people’, important commitments were made relating to water resources management. It is essential that they are translated into action. There are three main overarching objectives on water resources management. They are:
- better government planning in developing countries – linking water management to the bigger picture of fighting poverty and getting the balance right between the competing demands of economic growth, livelihoods and sustainability;
- improved regional governance and building regional capacity for management of waters, shared between countries; and
- improving international systems and processes, which supports national and regional water resources management, including sound financing to ensure the sustainability of programmes.
We must make faster progress both on water, sanitation and water resource management if we are to enable all of the world’s citizens to have clean water and a decent standard of sanitation. Only in this way will we be able to meet the challenges ahead and put an end to a growing crisis, which continues to claim the lives of 5,000 children every day.