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ADB-DMC Sanitation Dialogue

Welcome Remarks by
Amy Leung
Director, Social Sectors Division & Chair, ADB Water Committee
Asian Development Bank

March 3–5, 2009
ADB Headquarters, Mandaluyong City

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, I am pleased to welcome you to ADB Headquarters for the ADB-Developing Member Countries Sanitation Dialogue.

Allow me to express our appreciation and gratitude to you, for taking the time to travel to Manila and participate this week. Some of you have tiring distances. We have delegates here from Armenia and Georgia in Central Asia, right across to Mongolia in the East, and as far south as Samoa and Fiji in the Pacific. All in all, we have representatives from 19 countries.

To complement the diversity of country experiences, we are also pleased to receive delegates from different ministries. Sanitation issues intersect through a variety of sectors, such as health, environment, and housing. As a result, sanitation problems and solutions require the interest, political will and intersectoral collaboration. And I’m pleased that it has. We have with us this week, ministers of finance, health, water and sanitation, environment, and water resources and some of their senior executives as well as city mayors and heads of utilities.

We also have the support from our partners at UN Habitat, International Water Association, World Toilet Organization, and the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program.

In about one minute, we will show a brief video. The video highlights a wide scale of sanitation issues and the variety of solutions available to us. Sustainability should be the ultimate goal of any of our endeavors, and most times, that requires a mix of infrastructure solutions, policies and regulations, as well as financial and social interventions. Our efforts must be integrated and include activities and investments in securing healthy citizens and a healthy environment.

At ADB, we are quite sure that sustainable sanitation must reach beyond personal hygiene and provision of latrines and toilets. Our approaches must start considering the combined impacts of biological waste, municipal and industrial wastewater, and solid waste on the health of the people and ecosystems. To these ends, we must work together.

ADB’s call to action focuses on three factors that either undermine or secure success in sanitation, and they are “Dignity, Disease, and Dollars”. Policies, programs and investments should meet three related outcomes: The first is better facilities for individuals so they can regain their dignity. The second is prevention of disease and healthy environment for the wider community. The third outcome is financial viability of sanitation services for providers, governments and utilities in tandem with affordability for households. We have organized this dialogue to enable partnerships that can answer this call to action. By sharing knowledge and experiences, we can advance our efforts toward the mutual goal of sanitation for all.

Once again, welcome.