Water

Smarter Sanitation—Setting New Standards

For decades, development experts have struggled to find the right words to convince political leaders and decision makers to rally against the degrading living conditions that result from the lack of proper sanitation. In 2006, UNDP’s Human Development Report (HDR) finally found the magic words—“Water and sanitation are basic human rights—and no government should be willing to turn a blind eye to the current level of human rights violation.” ADB agrees with these strong words.

If sanitation is critical to social and economic progress, then why are many developing countries not expected to achieve the sanitation target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)?

Three factors contribute significantly.

First is political leadership on the subject—or its conspicuous absence. Public policies on sanitation are as important as economic management, defense, or trade. Yet, sanitation has always been in the backseat of the reform agenda.

Second is the lack of clear accountability. While water is provided by a utility or a municipal corporation, sanitation responsibility is shared by municipal corporations, state-level agencies, and even national-level line ministries—a situation where no one institution is clearly accountable.

Third is poverty. Poor households often lack the financing capacity to purchase sanitation facilities.

“Asia Water Watch 2015” estimates that it will cost at least $8 billion annually for the next 10 years to meet the regional MDG target 10 for water supply and sanitation. These investments will only serve half of the unserved population; more will be needed to ensure that the entire population is served. The cost is not impossible to finance. Money is available, but new ways must be tried. Business as usual has not worked in the past, and will not work now.

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The failure of business as usual calls for business unusual. Fresher, or what ADB calls “business unusual,” approaches in dealing with sanitation must be introduced, and soon, if Asia is to meet the sanitation target of the MDGs.

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Accessibility, privacy, affordability, environmental friendliness, and achievability should be the minimum standard for sanitation for everyone.

Accessibility and privacy of the sanitation facility underpin the human dignity aspect of sanitation—answering the call of nature should be within easy reach, with the facility taking into consideration the need for privacy, especially for women.

Sanitation services must also be affordable to everyone. Unfortunately, cost recovery has been difficult given people’s unwillingness to pay and governments’ unwillingness to charge. Today, even developed countries subsidize access to sanitation. Worse, required investments for sanitation, including wastewater management, is almost triple that of water supply, and developing member countries (DMCs) would find full sewerage too costly. DMCs should consider incremental improvements that can be quickly made. If needed, governments will have to initially subsidize the poor’s access to decent sanitation.

Another big challenge is ensuring that the natural and environmental impacts are minimized and mitigated. Several new ideas and technologies, including separation of urine from excrement, are now accepted as good practice in developed countries. Specific technologies that meet individual urban and rural conditions vary from place to place, though, and should be considered in designing sanitation interventions.

Finally, the gap in access to sanitation is so huge that solutions should be easily achievable. Only then will they be implemented expeditiously. This is where political leadership counts.

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Providing adequate sanitation to all is doable. A good household toilet, which lasts up to at least 15 years, costs about $60 per capita. A simple toilet can be built for less than $5 per capita. This one time capital cost is affordable to most DMC governments.

Beyond affordability, it is important to remember the massive economic impact of this investment. For every dollar invested in sanitation, $4-$15 will be generated in terms of savings in health, education, and labor costs. Ultimately, it is cheaper and more efficient for governments to spend for sanitation now than to tackle later the problems emerging from its absence.

To reach MDG target 10, some 521 million urban and 608 million rural residents should be additionally served. This translates to another $2.0 billion investment for urban areas, and $2.3 billion for rural areas.

Under the Water Financing Program 2006-2010 (WFP), ADB intends to provide water supply and sanitation services to another 200 million Asians. For this, ADB could earmark about $1 billion to finance stand-alone sanitation projects. ADB also intends to work with donor partners who are willing provide grant funds and subsidize the capital expenditure for these investments, particularly for the poor, estimated at $50 million.

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• Knowledge Product: Smarter Sanitation
• Water Brief: Sanitation and Wastewater Management - Saving Public Health and Sustaining Environment