Water

Seminar
Sanitation and Wastewater Management:
The Way Forward

The development of sanitation and wastewater management in ADB's developing member countries (DMCs) has generally lagged far behind the development in water supplies, despite the fact that they are mutually connected. Half of Asia still lacks access to improved sanitation — 2 billion of the 2.6 billion people lacking worldwide, according to the report “Asia Water Watch 2015.”

The lull in advancing sanitation as a development goal is partly due to lack of funding and partly due to lack of prioritization in most DMC’s agenda. What has also not been taken into account is the impact that inadequate sanitation facilities and ineffective wastewater management can have on hygiene and general public health.

A new ADB publication on “Sanitation and Wastewater Management: The Way Forward” hopes to bring sanitation and wastewater management into the development agenda of DMCs and funding institutions. The publication draws from the outputs and outcomes of ADB’s Hands-on Workshop on Sanitation and Wastewater Management in September 2005.

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The objectives of the activity included

• Discussing the highlights of the new publication “Sanitation and Wastewater Management: The Way Forward”
• Obtaining comments and recommendations from ADB operations staff, especially on specific actions that ADB should take in moving sanitation and wastewater management forward

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The publication highlighted

• International best practices, experiences and lessons learned in sanitation and wastewater management
• The shortcomings of the “business as usual” approach in the sanitation sector
• The need to shift to the “business unusual” approach – the balance between more innovative hardware (products, technologies, infrastructures) and more productive software (business processes, partnerships) – to move sanitation and wastewater management forward in the agenda of DMCs and development institutions

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The presentation was held at ADB Headquarters, Manila, Philippines

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Hands-on Workshop on Sanitation and Wastewater Management

Country Water Actions: Sanitation

Read ADB Speeches:
Advancing Sanitation and Wastewater Management Agenda in Asia and Pacific Region
Business Unusual: Time Is of the Essence