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Sanitation: Why Mayors Should Pay Attention and Why Now

Remarks by
WooChong Um
Director, RSID
Regional Sustainable Development Department
Asian Development Bank

At the International Seminar on Sanitation

15 November 2007
Manila, Philippines

I. Introduction

Mayors, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It is my pleasure to welcome you to ADB Headquarters, and on behalf of ADB, extend our gratitude for the time you have taken out of your busy schedules to attend this conference. I would also like to recognize the efforts of CITYNET, represented here by Mayor Nakada and the City Government of Makati, represented here by no less than Mayor Binay in helping to make this event possible. We are very pleased to be able to partner with them, especially as we share their concern about sanitation.

Toilet – this is a word not many of us would want to utter, much less have a serious discussion over. Most people think it’s taboo – some consider it to be too private a business to be discussed in public – and to some, this subject is simply not politically attractive. In fact we get around even mentioning the word here in the Philippines by calling it a visit to the comfort room or rest room.

But there is certainly one person among us here today who is very comfortable about using the word ‘Toilet”. That person is no other than the founder and president of the World Toilet Organization – JACK SIM who will inspire us to view sanitation or toilets differently. I’m sure he will support our advocacy that sanitation is an urgent issue that we need to talk about here and now.

II. The Urgency of Taking Action Now

Most, if not all, cities would choose to defer investing in sanitation because of concern over lack of money. Little do we realize that not investing in sanitation is far costlier. Poor sanitation results in high health costs for households and public health budgets, huge downstream costs to remedy environmental contamination, loss of tourism income and productivity. The poor live daily under a very real threat of hygiene related diseases – diarrhea, dysentery and even typhoid. Poor water supply and sanitation-related diarrhea kill nearly 4,000 children every day—that is nearly 3 children every minute. A public outbreak of cholera has been known to cost cities upward of $232 million. And losses in tourism revenue, which are key to many Asian countries, are very real as studies show that tourists avoid cities they fear do not have safe sanitation and are a risk to making them sick. For example, India loses $283 million in tourism revenues every year to perceptions of poor sanitation among potential tourists. Clearly, it is economically irrational to not invest in sanitation services.

We, at ADB, understand the challenges your cities are confronted with – that you have far too many problems to tackle, many competing demands for funds and sanitation happens to be just one of them. We know that National Governments may make the policy or even provide some seed money but really it is the Local Government that is the one expected to show leadership in protecting public health, improving living conditions and maintaining the dignity of its citizens by delivering appropriate sanitation services.

By you being here today, I believe you are signaling your intention to lift sanitation higher in your city’s priorities and are wanting to know not only what others are doing but also what organizations like ours can do to help you.

My colleague, Amy Leung will tell you all about this during one of your scheduled sessions but I tell you, sanitation issue is not the big hurdle that most people perceive it to be. By the end of this conference I am confident you will walk away with knowledge about the real economics of sanitation, you will be convinced that the so called barriers can be successfully demolished because others have achieved that result, you will know what ADB can offer and more importantly, you will have committed yourselves to taking action to put your city at the forefront of good sanitation practices and reaping the rewards for doing so.

City Mayors are people of action. You do not get re elected for the quality of your debate or analysis of sanitation barriers. You are rewarded at the polling booth for implementing actions that your communities can see are improving the quality of their lives, their children’s lives and their family’s livelihood. The purpose of this conference is to add impetus to your action programs and move beyond debate. Every mayor and city official in this conference today can take action that not only helps their own city but contributes across the Asian region closer to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of halving by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to improved sanitation. By the way, that means helping a billion people out of the 2 billion that lack access to improved sanitation.

One recent piece of news you would be aware of took place in China a week or so ago. At the big and significant Peoples Congress event, the decision was announced that China is putting environment ahead of economic growth. This recognizes that more industrial and domestic pollution burdens our cities everyday and that the more we defer dealing with it, the more we shall have to pay in the longer run. . We know this first hand in helping the Shanghai city deal with decades of pollution that turned their Suzhou Creek into a smelly unsightly and unhealthy waterway. Shanghai to their credit invested in remedial action but in doing so admitted that the cost of the solution was far more than it would have cost for prevention. Only a few days ago they committed another $350 million to continue this work.

This year, a special sanitation action group at ADB dug into the numbers behind sanitation coverage in Asia, the costs of various sanitation options and all the various issues cited for the lack of investments. We found that the major barrier—one that keeps the sector in a deadlock—is the perception that sanitation is too high of a cost and unaffordable. Studies have shown, however, that households are willing to pay for reliable sanitation services and they can generally afford to pay up to 5% of their income for their services. Money is not the barrier – it is political will. That is why ADB’s is delighted to be talking to politicians and decision makers like you.

III. Conclusion

In closing, let me say that as Asia’s development bank, we come equipped to help you in your policy, capacity and financial challenges. We are a knowledge bank. We stand ready to assist you in realizing what we know to be true—that adequate sanitation can be affordable for households, financially viable as a utility service and a can pay back investments. But as a bank, we can only do so much. At the end of the day, it’s you who will make the decision. It is the Mayors who play the major role in moving the sanitation agenda forward.

I look forward to our discussion ahead and our future together as stronger development partners in achieving sanitation for all.

Thank you.