Information gaps on urban service coverage
Eighty percent of the global population is without access to improved sanitation, and almost two-thirds is without access to improved water supply, live in Asia. The need for these basic services in Asia outstrips that of Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean taken together. To meet the Millennium Declaration Goal of halving the proportion of people without access to improved services by 2015, an additional 1.5 billion people in Asia will need access to adequate sanitation facilities, while an additional 980 million will need access to safe water. In urban areas, the corresponding figures are 675 million and 619 million respectively.
The aggregated regional statistics, however, mask many important facts, for example, the wide diversity of the region with some countries already enjoying near universal access to water and sanitation while, at the other extreme, some countries have been able to realize service coverage much lower than the regional average.
Emphasis on urban water and sanitation has also been placed in the Millennium Declaration by setting a target of improving the living condition of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.
Millennium Declaration Goals and the Need for Effective Monitoring
Systematic and sustained tracking and review of progress towards the water and sanitation related Millennium Declaration Goals for Asian cities is an important means of achieving the targets set in the Millennium Declaration. Monitoring of trends, achievements and shortfalls in the urban water and sanitation sector, bringing out intra-urban differentials and gender disaggregated data will help in developing policies and programmes at national and city-level targeted to improving the services for the urban poor. Such monitoring also helps international cooperation to be targeted to pro-poor interventions in a more effective manner.
Demand-side Management as a Priority Action
The need to move away from a narrow supply-fix approach is just as compelling in poor as in affluent settings. However, many of the insights, priorities and tools that have come to be associated with demand-side management are inappropriate to low income settings - they derive from a conservation perspective, and ignore the health, economic and a grassroots perspectives that tend to be critical in deprived urban areas.
One of the goals of demand-side management in low-income areas should also be to give more influence to those currently deprived of water. The 'supply-fix' approach has often favored affluent consumers over both future generations and the poor. Orthodox demand-side management attempts to address the concerns that are particularly relevant to future generations.
Thus, a comprehensive approach to demand management should focus on reducing unaccounted for water; discouraging wastage in high-income areas through pricing, technical and regulatory measures; and in low-income areas, promoting greater involvement of local residents' in driving water provision. This will call for a range of administrative and institutional measures and building capacity in water service provider and regulatory bodies.
Increased focus on Sanitation and Hygiene
It is now realized that sanitation and hygiene promotion is a priority in its own right. The proven success in reducing water and waste-related disease through campaigns of school sanitation and hygiene has been clearly demonstrated in the Asian region. Hygiene planning and action need a focal point to be successful and educational institutions have proved to be a suitable focus. The programme needs to develop an effective methodology to promote sanitation more vigorously.
Attention needs also to be given to community-preferred technological options and service levels, which can be maintained and managed by communities with a sense of ownership, essential for successful sanitation solutions.
Need for pro-poor governance
The urban poor, mostly living in peri-urban settlements should unquestionably receive the highest priority in the matter of future investments and institutional capacity building for the delivery and management of urban basic services. Key issues to be addressed in this context are: - housing rights including security of tenure
- realistic pricing of services,
- reliability and level of service, and
- choice of technology.
All these issues affect the affordability and willingness to pay by communities, which, in turn, impact on investment and sustainability.
Investment in Infrastructure
Policy makers need to be aware that infrastructure investments, unless properly directed, does not necessarily lead to better services for the urban poor. The social and environmental health implications of new investments in infrastructure need to be evaluated in each case to assess their impact on the urban poor. A clearly articulated infrastructure investment policy for urban basic services could go a long way to safeguard the interest of the urban poor.
Provision for the Urban Poor
Few local governments have a clearly defined urban development policy, not to speak of a policy for basic services in informal settlements. The "illegal status" of many low-income settlements excludes them from the provision of services. Many local authorities do not have provision in the planning process for the peri-urban poor. The urban poor are thus forced to rely on private sector operators and a thriving informal water market (commonly known as small-scale water providers which include both private operators and NGO/CBO run entities) exists in most Asian cities. The urban poor rely almost exclusively on this sector for meeting its water needs, however, there is a major information gap on the operation of this sector. There is an urgent need to regulate the services of the small-scale service providers to ensure that the urban poor can be assured of safe water at a price they can afford.
Community participation in the water and sanitation sector has, however, seen remarkable progress in several countries within the region in recent years. Most innovative initiatives though have come from communities and NGOs rather than from local authorities. The challenge in this area is to evaluate these experiences and disseminate them widely for possible replication in other cities. Also, stable partnerships with local authorities are essential for the sustainability and upscaling of these initiatives to city-wide level.
Community and Local Authority Cooperation
To improve governance in the water sector at the local level, the community and city residents in general, can play a key role in the monitoring of resource allocation and ensuring that local authorities and utilities are open and transparent in their operations and free with information. The concept of community-friendly local authorities and utilities who have a "consumer service focus" is becoming a new challenge which can greatly improve service delivery efficiency. For example, encouraging communities to report leakage or illegal connections, develops trust and understanding between the service provider and consumer.
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