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ADB-DMC Sanitation Dialogue

Remarks by
Woochong Um
Director, Sustainable Infrastructure Division,
Asian Development Bank

3 March 2009
ADB Headquarters, Mandaluyong City

Good afternoon, everyone.

Let me take just a few minutes to give you a bit of background on the next couple of days. And then we will hear from some real action heroes. They are frontline champions, at both grassroots and cabinet levels, who have a lot to show for their work on sanitation. They should be just as proud of their accomplishments, as we are honored to hear from them.

ADB’s goal for this conference is simple and straight-forward: We want to increase our knowledge, as well as yours to get sanitation coverages progressing. It’s all about knowledge. Yes, we also want to identify opportunities to partner with you. And yes, we also want to agree on actions that will make those opportunities happen. But neither of these two activities—identifying opportunities and committing to action—can happen, or even should happen, without a solid knowledge base to work from.

To grow that knowledge base, we need to open the discussion to topics that have been clouded by a lack of understanding as well as misunderstanding. We are going to talk politics and private sector and a range of topics between them, such as full cost recovery, the benefits of environmental cleanup, the real price of offering sanitation and more. We are asking questions, and are ready to help answer others. What are the political barriers to pursuing certain kinds of reforms? If we can’t remove those barriers, how do we work with them to still get good outcomes from our investments programs? What does the private sector need to know about doing business, given your policy and legal frameworks and political realities? What do you want to know about attracting the private sector?

We will explore some of the myths that are preventing our progress, and we will replace them with facts. Our research tells us there are serious misunderstandings about sanitation. For example, it isn’t true that sanitation is too costly and unaffordable. It isn’t true that the poor have more important needs than sanitation or they cannot afford it. It isn’t true that financing is not available to local governments and utilities for sanitation. We understand, though, where these misunderstandings come from. They come from how things were done in the past; not from the surprising and encouraging social research and technological innovations and new financing options that have been developed in the last few years. We need you to be ready and willing to consider some of these new positive realities, like the research that shows the poor are willing to pay for adequate sanitation services for reasons of dignity and privacy. And their willingness to pay is backed up by an ability to pay when upfront costs are levied on more flexible terms, such as installments. Other reaseach demonstrates how cost recovery is feasible and affordable to customers. Ultimately, we are sure that sanitation can be a financially viable service when the services are customer-oriented and worth paying for.

We’ll hear first-hand how political, business and civil leaders have taken on some of these urban sanitation legends and come out ahead. We’ll escape outdoors to visit Marikina City, which some may be tempted to call a miracle but it isn’t. It’s just a story of good politics—politics that have been more committed to solutions.

At this conference, we will identify opportunities and agree on actions. The knowledge to support this comes from having a common understanding of the status of your country’s sanitation sector—coverage levels, institutional frameworks, the policy and legal frameworks that create opportunity as well as prevent it. But the dialogue should never end there. We need to brainstorm together the actions we can jointly pursue to leverage off of what is working in favor of sanitation, and change what is not.

These discussions will be facilitated by members of ADB’s Sanitation Action Group, our country specialists and country directors. Our partners from other developing agencies are also available to suggest how their technical and investment support could help. This is going to be a good week, and we at ADB are looking forward to it. Thank you for being here.