Over one billion people worldwide lack access to safe water and another 2.6 billion do not have adequate sanitation, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). This global crisis has been labeled a "silent emergency," because water and sanitation have been chronically under-prioritized by the international development community. The 2006 Human Development Report (HDR): Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis, explores the causes and consequences of the global water and sanitation crisis and recommends a plan for global action.
The Millennium Development Goal on Water and Sanitation
One of the targets set out by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to halve the proportion of people in the world without access to water and sanitation by 2015. The 2006 HDR stresses that reaching this goal is essential for progress on other MDGs including hunger, poverty, health, education, and gender equality.
According to the report, 443 million school days are lost annually to water-related illnesses and each year nearly 1.8 million children die from diarrhea that could have been prevented with clean water and sanitation.
Women are often tasked with caring for the sick and fetching water from sources over a kilometer away, meaning that they are disproportionately burdened by the water and sanitation crisis. The cost of health care and lost productivity are a major hardship for women and the poor in general, significantly restraining economic growth. HDR research finds that the poor typically pay 5-10 times more for water than the rich, and that two-thirds of all people without access to clean water make less than $2 per day.
From UNDP, 2006. Human Development Report 2006: Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis.
Creating a Global Action Plan
The 2006 HDR calls for the creation of a Global Action Plan and $10 billion per year in order to meet the MDG. The report suggests three essential foundations for a Global Action Plan:
- Governments should ensure access to water as a human right. This means at least 20 liters per person per day, and at no cost to the poor.
- Countries must develop national strategies for water and sanitation and allot no less than one percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to these programs (currently, a typical allocation is less than 0.5% of GDP).
- The world must increase international aid by at least US$3.4 billion annually. The report asserts that for every $1 invested in water and sanitation, health costs will decrease by $8.
According to the report, achieving these goals will require strong partnerships between donors, NGOs, local and national governments, and the private sector. Coordination among these stakeholders must be swift and decisive, particularly in light of climate change, which could potentially exacerbate water scarcity in already arid regions.
Projected Annual Renewable Water Supply Per Person by River Basin, 2025
From EarthTrend: Environmental Information.
History Proves that Success is Possible
The Human Development Report reminds us that a century ago, water and sanitation in major cities like New York and London were no better than in developing country cities today. As a result of good policies and significant investments, conditions have drastically improved. "We urgently need history to repeat itself—this time in developing countries," says the 2006 HDR.
RELATED LINKS:
Human Development Report 2006 (full report, pdf)
EarthTrends
Feature: Will There Be Enough Water?
EarthTrends August 2006 Monthly Update: Water Scarcity
