If proper sanitation can give people back their dignity, improve health, and raise national incomes, why does it have such a slow climb to the top of development agendas?
Of the 2.5 billion people around the globe without access to sanitation, 1.87 billion - a whopping 75% live in the Asia-Pacific region. It is no secret that investments in sanitation have lagged behind investments in water supply for decades. It is more disheartening to note, however, that even with the drive to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the region has yet to make a significant dent on the people's unmet demands for this service.
Between 1990 and 2006, the number of people without improved sanitation in Asia dropped from 2.1 billion to 1.87 billion. While this is a 12% improvement, it is clearly not enough.
So how much will it cost the region to serve at least half of the 1.87 billion unserved?
Different agencies vary in their estimates. ADB pegs the cost at US$8.11 billion per year until 2015, the MDGs' deadline. The World Bank says the region will need US$2.6 billion for water supply and US$6.9 billion for sanitation, totalling US$9.5 billion annually. The World Health Organization (WHO) says US$11.3 billion each year, over and above current investments.
Whether US$8 7 billion or US$11 billion, the bottom line is clear: curative costs far outweigh preventive investments.
Preventive versus curative
For instance, US$9 billion is how much just four countries Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Viet Nam are losing each year because of poor sanitation, says a 2007 study by the Water and Sanitation Program. This includes health costs, losses in fisheries production and tourism, and other welfare impacts, such as reduced school attendance, inconvenience, wasted time, and lack of privacy and security for women. Disaggregated, this means a loss of some US$6.3 billion for Indonesia, US$1.4 billion for the Philippines, US$780 million for Vietnam and US$450 million for Cambodia.
Taking the Philippines as example, this US$1.4 billion annual loss would have been averted if the country injects just half that amountUS$740 millioneach year into its sanitation program.
Beyond averting huge losses, investments in water and sanitation generate huge economic benefits. A WHO study revealed that US$1 invested in water and sanitation would give an economic return of between US$3 and US$34.
Individual cases support such findings. In Xiamen, a coastal sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China's Fujian province, cleaning up the Yuan Dang Lagoon took US$43.75 million for desludging and constructing the wastewater collection and treatment system, tide channels, and retention walls. If one adds the cost of operations, reclamation, and afforestation, the bill runs up to US$135.5 million.
Pushing the sanitation agenda forward
Recognizing that poverty will never be alleviated without the huge health and economic benefits of improved sanitation, ADB has stepped up its efforts to catalyze investments in the sector.
Between 2003-2007, ADB's funding for all water and sanitation projects accounted for 8% of ADB's total portfolio. For the 2008-2010 pipeline, this more than doubles to 17%. This is due to ADB's deliberate drive to double investments in the sector to meet the MDG targets.
In terms of sanitation's share in ADB's lending portfolio, it averaged at 4.5% between 2003-2007. In the 2008-2010 pipeline, this share again doubles to 8%.
But ADB's efforts alone will not really make a huge dent in the sanitation gap. This will require concerted and collaborative efforts by communities, local and national governments, private sector, civil society, and donor and international agencies. Enabling mechanisms, innovative solutions, supportive policies and regulations, financial re-engineering, technological evolutions, capacity development of champions, implementers, and institutions, and more are needed to bridge the sanitation gap.
To increase funding for sanitation projects, ADB is organizing a Sanitation Dialogue with water, environment, health, and finance ministers of its developing member countries on 3-5 March 2008. Strategies and solutions will be discussed and action plans will be initiated to push the sanitation agenda forward in a holistic way.
This is a significant investment, for sure, but the returns make it worthwhile. For starters, the value of land around the lagoon was upgraded and is now estimated at US$168 million. The sales of treated wastewater and sludge have reached US$250 million. Living conditions of the residents drastically improved, and the area around the lake was developed as an open recreational and leisure place for the public. Aquatic creatures such as fish, egrets, and seagulls have returned after years of absence. The lake's environmental quality attracted an estimated US$1.23 billion investments. From 1995-2001, Xiamen's GNP growth rate was 15.7%among the highest in the world.
References:
- Hao, S. and B. Peng (1998). The Social Economic Benefits Analysis of Integrated Treatment of Yuandang Lake.
- Hart, Tracy (2006). "Unmet Demand: What is the Cost to East Asia." Paper presented at the East Asian Congress 2006 in Haikou City, Hainan, PR China.
- Hong, H. and B. Peng (2002). "Harmonizing Economic Development and Environmental Management: the Xiamen Experience." Tropical Coasts, 2002.
- Hong H. 2002. "Harmonizing Economic Development and Environmental Management: the Xiamen Experience." Tropical Coasts, GEF/UNDP/IMO Regional Program on Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia, Quezon City, Philippines.
- Prüss-üstün, A., Bos, R., Gore, F., and Bartram, J. Safer Water, Better Health. Costs, Benefits and Sustainability of Interventions to Protect and Promote Health. World Health Organization, Geneva, 2008.
- Water and Sanitation Program (WSP). Economic Impacts of Sanitation in Southeast Asia (2007).
- World Health Organization (WHO). Costs and benefits of water and sanitation improvements at the global level (2004).
