Washington, DC, April 20, 2012 – World leaders from 40 countries commit to ending water and sanitation crisis
at historic meeting
End Water Poverty welcomes the commitments made at the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting. More
and better targeted funding is needed if these ambitious goals are to be reached.
An unprecedented number of Ministers of Finance, Development and Water from 40 countries, along with
development banks and civil society, came together today for this historic meeting to accelerate efforts to bring
clean water and safe sanitation to millions.
Ministers of Water, Sanitation, Environment and Health from across Africa and Asia announced that in each of
their countries they will strive to decrease open defecation by 15%, improve access to water by 5% and increase
access to safe sanitation by 7% by 2014. These promises would provide 56 million people with safe drinking water
and 78 million people with sanitation over the next two years.1
Rudy Amenga-Etego, from the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (ANEW) who represented civil
society at meeting said: “We’re pleased to see ambitious commitments being made to get water and sanitation to
our citizens. We now need to see new funding, clear plans and better targeting to make sure these promises can be
kept.”
Yakub Hossein, from the Freshwater Action Network South Asia (FANSA) said: “Only by working together, can we
ensure that we start to see real progress for the poorest and most vulnerable communities. As civil society we
commit ourselves to working together with governments and communities to tackle this crisis as well as ensuring
that world leaders keep the promises they made today.”
Some developing countries went even further. Benin committed to increasing its budget allocations for 2013-2014
by 100% per year for basic sanitation, whilst Burkina Faso committed to allocating at least US$35m to water and
sanitation annually and promised to eradicate open defecation by 2015. Kenya pledged that a further 20 million
people would gain access to drinking water and sanitation by 2015 and Nigeria promised to progressively increase
the budget allocation for water and sanitation over the next three years.
Crucially, developing countries called on donor countries to support them in reaching these ambitious targets by
increasing resources and expertise for water and sanitation and better targeting aid to the poorest countries and
communities.
Donor countries responded by making commitments of their own, with the UK announcing that they are doubling
their commitment for water and sanitation over the next two years from 30 to 60 million people globally.
Dutch Minister for European Affairs and International Cooperation Ben Knapen announced a new initiative
between the Netherlands and UK to bring water and sanitation to an additional 10 million people in nine countries
in West and Central Africa. In all, the Netherlands intends to scale up its assistance to reach 25 million more
people globally over the next four years.
Knapen said: “In the current economic climate we are not taking this decision lightly. We are giving a significant
amount of money to UNICEF to help in this work, but when you count the health and economic benefits, and in
particular the lives of children, the government of the Netherlands believes this is unquestionably the right call.”
1
WaterAid figures
Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development, said: “For too long, water and sanitation has
not received the priority it deserves from the international community. That is why the Coalition Government will
commit to helping over 60 million people access basic services, such as communal water pumps.” 2
Other donors followed suit with Germany committing to reaching 30 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa with
water and sanitation by 2015, focusing on “the poor and extremely poor population… and the most vulnerable,
such as slum dwellers and children.”
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announced that USAID will join the Sanitation and Water for All Partnership.
Australia will also join the partnership.
End Water Poverty welcomes these commitments but emphasises that there is still a funding shortfall if countries
are to reach these ambitious targets and get water and sanitation to those most in need.
Rolien Sasse, CEO of Simavi in the Netherlands and End Water Poverty civil society representative on the SWA
steering committee said:
“Civil society now has a crucial role in both supporting governments to deliver and holding them to account on
these commitments –End Water Poverty members will be leading the way.”
ENDS
Notes
1. For press enquiries and interviews, please contact jenniferwilliams@endwaterpoverty.org
Water Poverty is an international civil
2. End Water Poverty is an international civil society coalition that campaigns to end the global water and
sanitation crisis. Launched in March 2007, the coalition has grown rapidly to include over 200 member
organizations in 45 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.
3.
The Sanitation and Water for All partnership was created in 2010 and is an alliance of national
governments, donors, civil society organisations and other development partners. They are starting to
work together to increase political will and improve aid-effectiveness by mobilizing and better targeting
resources for water supply and sanitation. The Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting today
brought together Ministers of Finance from developing countries, Ministers of Development Cooperation
from donor countries and high-level representatives from development banks and other donor
institutions to address the lack of priority given to sanitation and water as a development intervention,
the poor targeting of aid in the sector, and the need for robust planning and institutions.
4.
End Water Poverty called for:
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Significantly more and better funding for water, sanitation and hygiene, targeted at the most vulnerable
communities, to achieve universal access by 2020
The development and implementation of viable national plans for water and sanitation, including the
recognition and operationalisation of the human right to water and sanitation
Ensuring equity and sustainability is at the heart of all approaches so that WASH services are accessible to
all including the most vulnerable communities and specifically for women and girls.
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2
Department for International Development, UK, press release 20 April 2012
5. Last week, the UN GLAAS report showed that only half of development aid for sanitation and drinking
water is currently targeted to the regions where 70% of those without safe water and sanitation live and
that funding is disproportionately targeted at urban areas, even in countries where urban areas are well
served and rural communities still lack access. 83% of countries are falling significantly behind the
progress required to meet their national access targets for sanitation and 70% of countries are falling
behind on their drinking water targets, yet despite these figures, development aid commitments to
sanitation and drinking water are still lower than those for most social sectors, including health and
education. Find the full GLAAS report here:
http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/pdf/glaas_report_2012_eng.pdf
6. Over 373,000 people in 70 countries took part in the World Walks for Water and Sanitation campaign on
World Water Day. This film shows what happened: http://youtu.be/YLHvTw18YQ8