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3/12/2008 - “Every dollar invested in water supply and sanitation generates 4 to12 dollars in health benefits. We must put water back on the policy map and mobilise political action for more investments. This should go hand-in-hand with reform of water policies, especially at the local level.” Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Chair of the UN’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, speaking to the OECD Global Forum on Water on Tuesday, added that, “More than 4 000 children under the age of five die of diarrhoea every day because of poor water, sanitation and hygiene. Providing access to water supply and sanitation is not only a public health issue, it is also crucial for reducing poverty, promoting education and gender equality, and protecting ecosystems.”
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The Forum participants discussed the results of a two-year OECD programme on the economic and financing aspects of water and sanitation. The outcome of the Forum will feed into the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul in March 2009.
OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría noted that water and sanitation are also a growing problem in OECD countries, “We need massive investment to replace the ageing infrastructure necessary to meet increasing demand and higher hygiene and water quality standards.”
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OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría and
Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
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Though the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) call for the proportion of people without access to safe water and basic sanitation to be halved by 2015, many countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, are not on track to meet these goals. OECD analysis shows that aid to the water sector has risen since 2001, after a decline in the late 1990s, and now accounts for about 9% of donor aid. But much of this aid flows to countries that are already developing well, while the share of aid to the water sector in sub-Saharan Africa has declined from 22 to 17% during 2001-2006. Amid fears that the financial crisis would result in an aid crisis, OECD donors recently made an Aid Pledge, promising to honour their aid commitments, including the water-related MDGs.
Water management is a challenge for both OECD and developing countries, Gurría said in his opening remarks. Agriculture is the biggest user and polluter of water. Farmers, who benefit from cheap water, would manage it more efficiently if they paid abstraction charges or had tradable water rights. It’s important to get water tariffs right, so that they meet the double objective of financial sustainability for the water suppliers and affordability for poorer families. Water services provided by either public or private operators can work as long as due attention is paid to the regulatory framework to ensure that safe water is provided cost-effectively and sustainably.
“We now need to translate the ideas and analysis from this Forum into results on the ground,” concluded Gurría.
For more information, journalists are invited to contact Helen Fisher in OECD’s Media Division (tel. +33 1 45 24 80 97).
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