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Delivering our Vision - Sanitation for All

Closing Remarks by
Kallidaikurichi Easwaran Seetharam
Principal Water Supply and Sanitation Specialist
Asian Development Bank

At the International Seminar on Sanitation

16 November 2007
Manila, Philippines

Introduction

Honorable Mayors, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

On behalf of ADB, I thank you all for having taken the time to travel to our Headquarters and for your active participation in these two days of learning, discussions and planning. I would also like to specially note the successful efforts of our seminar partners, CITYNET, City of Yokohama, and the City Government of Makati.

“No action” on sanitation is not a choice any more

The title of the seminar proposes a vision that we all could embrace. I hope that the discussions in the last two days have encouraged you to believe the possible—that adequate sanitation is affordable for households, financially viable as a utility service and is able to pay back government investments. However, in my view, we have to act now, in order to capture the full potential of adequate sanitation services to positively transform our urban environments. Many developing countries will mortgage their future in a decade or two in terms of water security, by considering sanitation only in a very restricted sense of collecting and transferring the untreated sewage to another area thereby contaminating fresh water sources. The overall goal should be to develop a sustainable sanitation, rather than aim to build an arbitrary number of latrines.

Wastewater may now be collected from urban areas, but is mostly either not treated, or only receives partial treatment, before discharge to rivers, lakes, or oceans, which are consequently now seriously contaminated. This is already having serious adverse health, social, economic, and environmental impacts. If the present unsatisfactory trends continue, in one or two decades, Asian and Pacific developing countries are likely to face and cope with a crisis on water quality management that is unprecedented in human history. Thus, it is absolutely essential that new wastewater treatment facilities are constructed on a massive scale and are properly maintained, so that the water contamination problems can be progressively reduced. Our success is a matter of our approach—our level of commitment, our willingness to invest, our choice of technologies, our understanding of the market, the very users we are serving.

New Partnerships

This seminar has proven that Asia is home to good policy, good practice, and good results. The sessions themselves confirmed that a number of national and local governments and public utilities across Asia and the Pacific are thinking creatively and acting swiftly to close the policy gaps, attract the needed financing and mend environments in distress. The case study presentations from select cities showcased what is possible for the rest of Asia, where the vast majority of cities are in dire technical, financial and policy straits.

A number of discussions on water and sanitation refer to institutional reforms within the State to meet the developmental aims of the sector. Often, the term Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) arise as a means of the Government to involve the private sector in government infrastructure projects as well as to fast-track these projects. PPPs are contractual agreements formed between the Government and the private sector to allow private sector participation in the delivery of services. While PPPs are very beneficial for the Government to implement their projects in the fastest and most cost-effective way, the question of sustainability and user-acceptance come into play. Particularly for sanitation, the role of the Civil Society is of the essence. Civil society must not only be consulted on their issues and concerns but they should likewise be involved in the planning and implementation of solutions.

I would like you to consider new form of partnership between the Government, Corporate, Society or GCS. In this innovative partnership, Government will regulate and govern, Corporate will deliver the services (both public and private), and civil Society will ensure that public policy assure equitable delivery of services, and blow a whistle when environmental safeguards are not complied with.

Smarter Sanitation

ADB’s own call to more sanitation action began resonating in 2005, with an international workshop focusing on sanitation initiatives for the future. That workshop inspired the release in 2006 of the electronic toolkit, “Smarter Sanitation,” which I hope many of you will be bringing home with you. It was the first of several significant steps in opening up the knowledge doors to practical, achievable sanitation initiatives for all levels of decision makers and utility managers in Asia. This year, ADB presented at the World Water Week in Stockholm a discussion paper, “Dignity, Disease and Dollars: Asia’s Urgent Sanitation Challenge.” As the region heads into the last half of the MDG race, and mark 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation, ADB is conscientiously emerging as a leader in sanitation financing, technical assistance and innovative solutions. Under ADB’s Water Financing Program 2006-2010, we are committed to boost investments in sanitation services to not just the marginalized half targeted by the MDG campaign, but for 100 percent of your population. We have decided to allocate up to $20 million from the Water Financing Partnership facility to catalyze these sanitation investments.

Asia Water Development Outlook

ADB will release later this month, the Asian Water Development Outlook (AWDO) to support the discussion among leaders at the first Asia Pacific Water Summit in Beppu on 3-4 December. AWDO aims to seek leaders’ commitment to move water and sanitation up on the national, regional, and international agenda. Massive, unprecedented urbanization in Asia—especially the many small urban centers of less than 500,000 people—will present new types of water- and wastewater-related challenges that all countries will have to face. These challenges may not be similar to those expected at present. They could be of a wholly different character, and some may even be counter-intuitive. The Asian mega cities will represent only about 4.7% of the global population by 2015. In contrast, urban centers of 500,000 or less will account for nearly 27% by 2015 (nearly six times the mega cities)—many of you are the leaders of these centers—and these centers have received scant attention from national and international institutions, and water and development professionals.

Living Cities – A vision for CITYNET members

I encourage the members of CITYNET to embrace a vision for their future interventions that can be defined by the term “Living Cities.” The letters L, I, and G in “Living” promote three core attributes: committed Leadership, better Infrastructure, and good Governance.¹ The letters in the word “cities” provide further directions, to wit:

C - Competitiveness is crucial for cities to be the engines of growth for the nation. Commitment at local political administration is crucial for cities to maintain competitiveness.

I - Infrastructure of cities (i.e., basic services) must be efficient and affordable to achieve competitiveness. It should be improved and expanded expeditiously and operated on commercial principles that ensure sustainability.

T - Transport and communications should provide mobility, and be safe and reliable for the cities to function effectively. Successful city residents spend nearly one third of their time on the road and on the phone.

I - Information is the key factor for good governance, which is necessary for the continued success of cities. Transparent, low transaction costs through e-government are requirements.

E - When the living environment (i.e., quality of life, open space, air quality, etc.) is good, cities will be livable and sustainable. Cities are not spaces just for making a living; they have life.

S - Good shelter (i.e., adequacy, availability, and affordability of housing space through appropriate planning, land use, and housing policy) is a salient feature of a city with a vision.

The future of your cities is in your hands-- and I hope that you will become the champions of this vision for your cities. In December 2006, ADB together with Cities Alliance published a very popular book, “Urbanization and Sustainability—case studies on good practice. I hope several of you were able to read this book. It has been downloaded over 100,000 times already. The book comprises 36 case studies from 12 Asian countries, as well as 5 global examples. I sincerely hope that with your leadership from the City of Yokohama, and commitment from all of you, some your cities can implement these good practices.

I wish you a safe journey home and look forward to our continued partnership in making Asia’s cities more dignified, disease free and economically developed places for the hundreds of millions who call them home.

Thank you for your attention.