Interview with Andrew Hudson, of the UNDP Water Governance Programme
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 5 2007 (IPS) – Last month, the Prince of Orange, Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined forces to declare 2008 the International Year of Sanitation (IYS).
Andrew Hudson Credit: UNDP
Some 1.5 million children die every year due to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene, while more than a third of the world s population does not have access to basic toilet facilities.
Still, sanitation is one of the least publicised of the eight poverty-focused Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and a variety of associations and U.N. agencies have stepped up to reduce these numbers at least by half by the MDG deadline of 2015.
IPS correspondent Rajiv Fernando interviewed Andrew Hudson, an expert from the U.N. Development Programme. Excerpts of the interview follow.
IPS: There are an estimated 2.6 billion people living without adequate sanitation, of whom 980 million are children. How is UNDP working to resolve this problem? AH: UNDP does work at a global, national and local level to address the links between access to sanitation and water and sustainable human development. On a global level we support global policy processes and advocacy, for example through the World Water Development Report and campaigns like the IYS. On a national level UNDP works with countries to mainstream access to sanitation and water into MDG-based national development plans and poverty reduction strategies and supports sectoral policy and governance reforms.
At the local level we focus on promoting decentralised water management that is responsive to local conditions and the needs of poor and marginalised groups. UNDP helps communities take an active role in water resources management, and promotes safe and ecosystem-based water supply and sanitation systems and technologies.
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IPS: Why is sanitation considered one of the most neglected of all the U.N. MDGs? AH: As an issue, sanitation is a political orphan . Many governments have several ministers with only partial responsibility for the issue, such as education, health, water, environment, etc. Even more than water, sanitation suffers from a combination of institutional fragmentation, weak national planning and low political status.
Poverty is another barrier to progress because the poorest households often lack the financing capacity to purchase sanitation facilities. Half of the 2.6 billion without adequate sanitation live on less than two dollars a day. And poor people are less able to influence decision-making. But other factors also constrain progress, including household demand and gender inequality. Women tend to attach more importance to sanitation than do men, but female priorities carry less weight in household budgeting.
IPS: How do you think you can generate more media and donor attention for NGOs that deal with sanitation issues? AH: The U.N.-Water Sanitation Task Force is rolling out a communication strategy to raise awareness about the issues associated with sanitation, including health, the environment, social and economic development and gender equality, targeted at various audiences around the world ranging from politicians and government officials to the general public. Planned outreach, advocacy and lobbying activities include a range of media and initiatives, for example radio campaigns, photo contest, corporate sponsorships, school curricula, etc.
IPS: Why is the subject of sanitation and human waste so rarely aired in public, and what can be done to change this mindset? AH: Sanitation is a dirty word in many cultures not discussed in so-called polite company. Perhaps the biggest obstacle is the stigma that s still attached to the issue of sanitation. There are parallels here with HIV/AIDS but unlike in the case of HIV/AIDS, the cultural and social taboo associated with sanitation remains intact. This is part of the reason why sanitation does not figure prominently in public debates and lacks high level political leadership.
We have to stop being polite, start talking about shit , and raise the awareness of the staggering costs generated by the sanitation deficit. We have to recognise that access to sanitation is a basic right.
IPS: What are the consequences of lack of sanitation among children? AH: Some 1.8 million children die each year as a result of diarrhoea which is 4,900 deaths a day. This is equivalent to the under-five population in London and New York combined. Access to sanitation is one of the strongest determinants of child survival: the transition from unimproved to improved sanitation reduces child mortality by a third. Astoundingly, an estimated 443 million school days are lost each year from water-related illness.
Women and girls don t need toilet facilities just for defecation; they also need privacy and dignity when menstruating. It is estimated that one in 10 school-age African girls either skips school during menstruation or drops out entirely because of lack of sanitation. While an assessment in the Noakhali District of Bangladesh demonstrated that the provision of water and sanitation facilities in a school increased girls attendance by 11 percent.
IPS: What regions of the world are most affected by lack of proper sanitation? AH: While some regions such as East Asia/Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Arab States are on or near target for achieving the sanitation MDG, some regions like South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and individual countries need significant acceleration if the sanitation MDG is to be met.
In terms of the number of people with no access to improved sanitation, East Asia and the Pacific have 958 million people and South Asia with 926 million people are most affected, followed by sub-Saharan Africa with 436 million, Latin America with 119 million and the Arab States with 80 million.
