 | |
Water Champions
|
Achieving Water for All is ADB's vision for the Asia and Pacific region.
This section recognizes the important contributions of individuals from the region's developing countries.
Water champions initiate or implement water reforms in their chosen field, and are directly involved in improving the water situation in their respective countries.
Read about ADB's Water Champions. |
SPOTLIGHT
Bindeshwar Pathak |
Crusading for Human and Environmental Dignity
“Affordable and sustainable technology is essential for social reform,” says Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of the Sulabh International Social Service Organization. That’s why he turned to technology when he started his crusade to restore the dignity of scavengers who clean up human excreta, treated as the lowest of the low in Indian society. His innovations have since improved the lives of millions and liberated over 120,000 scavengers from the scorn and humiliation their work engenders.
|
|
| 2008 |
 |
“Affordable and sustainable technology is essential for social reform,” says Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of the Sulabh International Social Service Organization. That’s why he turned to technology when he started his crusade to restore the dignity of scavengers who clean up human excreta, treated as the lowest of the low in Indian society. His innovations have since improved the lives of millions and liberated over 120,000 scavengers from the scorn and humiliation their work engenders.
|
 |
The Water Cellar for Mothers Project has built more than 100,000 cellars and benefited 1.3 million people. “Our project runs on donations,” says Guoying Qin, project head and Deputy Secretary-General of the China Women’s Development Foundation, “so we always show our contributors where their funds are going and what improvements they’re making.”
|
|
| 2007 |
 |
“Climate change is real,” says Salmah Zakaria, Director General of the National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia, “But inaction is not an option.” Salmah says not doing anything to counter the impacts of climate change will cost more. Malaysia has now embarked on a number of adaptive measures against climate change's adverse effects.
|
 |
Is toilet talk sexy? Ask Jack Sim, CEO of the World Toilet Organization, and he’ll give a resounding yes. “Toileting is natural, and we should be able to talk about it comfortably,” says Mr. Sim. “Talking leads to demand, and demand leads to supplies. The more we talk, the more we understand, and that is the first step to finding solutions to our sanitation problems.”
|
 |
“Water user rights should be used as an instrument to protect the people, especially those economically marginalized. The system should also take into consideration the need for water to sustain the environment, and the government should ensure that water is allocated for this purpose.”
|
 |
"The pro-poor initiative [of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board] has opened the eyes of the utility to the fact that the urban poor population can be connected to the system, can contribute to capital costs through connection fees, and can help minimize losses—all that's needed is to make water affordable to them."
|
 |
"I think it's important to find a champion—whether an individual or agency— who will catalyze actions for the basin. In the case of Bang Pakong, it was the chairperson from the private sector who galvanized the Committee into action."
|
 |
"We made sure that communities are involved every step of the way, and that they understood what their gains would be. Towards the end, we saw a dramatic shift in attitude-people now have the "I care and I pay" attitude."
|
|
| 2006 |
 |
"When I first took over PPWSA, I discovered that most of the illegal connections were installed by utility employees themselves. To solve this problem, we ran a public awareness campaign encouraging people to stop this illegal activity. We gave incentives to anyone who could provide information on illegal connections. We slapped heavy penalties on those connected illegally. And we paid special attention to the staff of PPWSA. Any staff associated with illegal connections was removed or punished immediately. To this day, we remain vigilant about staff involvement in illegal connections."
|
 |
"When we talk about challenges, we usually imply that they have to be overcome. What large-dam projects are facing today are not `challenges' but serious questioning. They are being questioned on environmental/ecological grounds, and on what they do to human beings. There is great resistance to such projects, and rightly so. Such major interventions in nature and human lives should not have an easy passage."
|
 |
"You have to do what you think is right. In whatever decision you make, someone will always say you are not fair or right. Balancing conflicting interests within a political climate is not easy but must be made. Welcome all opinions as they will help you enlarge your solution set. Besides, utility regulators and the public have their own criteria for judgment—it is useful for regulators to know what the public’s are."
|
 |
"Water and poverty are very much interrelated, and they are the keys to achieving most of the MDGs. We cannot eradicate poverty without first providing equal access to water and sanitation for the poor; and we cannot succeed in achieving "water for all" without serious efforts to tackle all dimensions of poverty."
|
 |
"Quality of life begins with water. When the most important task of the most productive person in a family is fetching water, then there is less time for more productive work. Again there is fear of getting sick using unsafe water. Money spent on finding cure for water related sickness and time lost during sickness are huge losses that can be avoided through judicious investment on water. "
|
 |
"We believe that water is everybody's business. That's why strong and inclusive stakeholder participation is high on our agenda. We also pursue financial sustainability through policies and mechanisms to recover O & M costs, with full cost recovery being our long term objective."
|
 |
"What the media can and should do is make the people aware that water challenges are everyone’s; that solution to water problems start from every single household. Sadly, that dimension remains missing in our media coverage."
|
|
| 2005 |
 |
"At the end of the day, neither missiles and motorcades, nor cars and computers, can confer prestige on nations without taps and toilets."
|
 |
"Ancient Chinese civilization emphasized harmony between people and nature. But with society’s progress, this idea has been set aside as people started to think that they can conquer nature. But they ignored the negative impact of human activity on nature. Now, I feel that we have come full circle, and realized that the ancient Chinese thinking was right. This realization was brought about by very important lessons on water management." |
 |
"Over the past 8 years, Manila Water has already served about 820,000 people in 517 low income communities through our Tubig para sa Barangay (TPSB) program. We will aggressively pursue our TPSB projects for the medium term by providing properly connected water system for urban poor communities. Our target is to serve 100,000 people from poor communities every year. And this will materialize with the support of our partners in the communities we serve." |
 |
"SAPPROS tries to educate communities on the need to integrate DWS systems with water harvesting tanks for irrigation in order to enable them to realize and create income-generating activities. The systems will not be sustainable unless the communities raise operation and management funds for regular maintenance of the system." |
 |
"NWRB is not exempt from problems and challenges. But whatever achievements we have achieved in the past, we can attribute to a well written Water Code that has stood the test of time, regular meetings and active participation of the members of the apex body, and strong support from other government agencies in the sector" |
 |
"India is a land known for its complex lakes, tanks, and extremely intricate irrigation networks. These were created with the native intelligence of people who understood their relation to the five J's -- jan [people], jungle [forests], jameen [land], jaanwar [fauna] and jal [water]." |
 |
"The distinction between the management of water resources and the delivery of water services is the core of ADB's water policy. While each country needs to adopt its own policy and reform process to address water management challenges, these basic principles of water governance can be applied universally." |
 |
"I think access to water supply and sanitation services should be recognized as a fundamental human right, whether someone is able to pay or not. This will enable the urban poor to have guaranteed access to WSS services. The cost can be recovered through cross subsidy and/or graduated tariff." |
 |
"In this situation where so many countries in the region are affected, no individual country can do it on their own. And it is going to need a massive international effort to help these countries get back on their feet." |
 |
"The biggest challenge, I think, is keeping our momentum going. But we are very determined--- not only to do all we can for this project, but also to ensure that our frameworks, insights and experience are replicated in other parts of the country. The PRC has a lot of wetlands, and we are determined to protect and conserve each one of them." |
|
| 2004 |
 |
"I have always advocated the institutional strengthening and transformation of the LLDA into an apex body. Hence, the centerpiece LLDA's current efforts is the development and adoption of an integrated water resources management and development institutional model." |
 |
"A basic problem for us is that the people generally see water as a free and abundant product - nature's gift to us. We will have to work hard to change that perception." |
 |
"The most basic is the need to change the mindset of the people, to get them to think bottom-up, participatory processes instead of top-down. For this, we need to educate them about the benefits and implications of having strong RBOs." |
 |
"I was happy to note that 70% of the villagers gathered at the meeting were women. The village Secretary and the Treasurer were also women. And what's more important, the women in the village were very vocal and articulate about their questions. Their questions were also very good, especially on financial and administrative matters, showing us how active their involvement in the project really was." |
 |
"Flooding in Bangladesh is really the result of a complex series of factors—from the huge inflow of water from upstream catchment areas coinciding with heavy monsoon rainfall to congested drainage channels; from the major rivers converging inside Bangladesh to tides and storm surges in coastal areas. These factors give rise to different types of flooding, both natural and man-made." |
 |
"I think that our move to seek the active participation of local governments in the different stages of the project has helped them acquire a sense of ownership for the water supply systems installed, and we hope that this will ensure sustainability of the systems." |
 |
"There is a Thai word "Nam Jai" that means "water from the heart." It also refers to kindness, compassion and sympathy, which are pillars for peace in our society. People are convinced that without "Nam Jai" and the proper care of our watershed system, nobody will survive or be truly happy. " |
 |
"Working in rural water supply and sanitation is very rewarding. You have the opportunity to actually interact actively with the beneficiaries and also see what impact the project has on the communities. Since we deal mostly with governments, it is easy to lose touch with the reality on the ground. But communities and individuals are not out of our direct reach, and we make our biggest contributions when we reach out to them." |
|
| 2003 |
|
|
 |
"When you enter a supermarket, you don't pay an entrance fee. You just pay for the goods you buy. It should be the same with water supply services-you provide the connection for free or for a nominal charge, and charge for what the users consume. A utility operator who intends to start a massive system expansion and seeks an increase in tariff must lower the entry barrier. That's utility operations 101." |
 |
"Regulation is needed not just to attract the private sector. It is important for public services because they're not being controlled in any way, resulting in cities' poor water services and lack of needed benchmarks against which to rate the performance of their service providers." |
 |
"SSPWPs are like illegal settlements-- everyone thinks that they are only temporary and few want to spend money on improving them. But the reality is that some of these settlements are here to stay and that the way forward is not getting rid of them but working with them." |
|
| 2002 |
 |
"The people in Karakalpakstan and Khorezm have been drinking salty water for so long that they actually don't know that water shouldn't be salty. Because of the water shortage, the people just drink any water - even one that poses serious health risks - because that's the only one they have." |
 |
"Klang River used to seem like a garbage conveyor. Today, the amount of garbage is smaller and people now take strolls along the riverfront. The people in Kuala Lumpur are now reconnecting with the Klang River running through their city. Hopefully, this will make them appreciate and care for the river in the future." |
|
|
|
Topics 
Top of page