Framework Themes

1. Water for Growth and Development >>
2. Implementing Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) >>
3. Water Supply and Sanitation for All >>
4. Water Management for Food and the Environment >>
5. Risk Management >>

3. Water Supply and Sanitation for All

Regardless of the efforts made there are still many places where water is only available at remote locations or intermittently at standpipes, borewells and public fountains. Frequently this water is of poor quality. Insufficient safe water and sanitation expose people -especially children- to water-related diseases.

It is widely recognized that deficiencies in water supply and sanitation hinders people's well-being in a multifold manner. The constraints on expanding and improving water supply and sanitation for urban and rural environments need to be overcome. It is imperative to understand and face the political, financial, regulatory, organizational, cultural and technological challenges hindering the provision of water supply and sanitation.

Primary Discussion Aspects

Inputs sought for local actions –already underway or planned– comprising the following aspects:

• Measuring the impact of the provision of water and sanitation on local, regional and national development and poverty alleviation strategies and goals.
• Voicing the end users' perspective regarding the underlying causes of deficiencies and inefficiencies in water supply and sanitation provision in urban and rural areas.
• Improving water quality and expanding access to safe water supply and sanitation for the urban and rural poor, and the strategies and mechanisms central and local governments adopt to enable this.
• Establishing the complementarities in supply and demandside management strategies (tariff setting, cross and direct subsidies, awareness campaigns and education, etc.).
• The evolving role of national and local government, the lending community, the private sector and other stakeholders in the governance of water supply and sanitation provision.
• Financing and governance instruments for meeting the MDGs in the provision of water supply and sanitation (i.e. innovative financing, decentralization, private sector participation in water and sanitation utilities, public-private partnerships, small-scale providers and civil society organizations, regulation, benchmarking, monitoring and information schemes).
• Initiatives to confront the challenges for water supply and sanitation in megalopolis and the peri-urban interface.
• Protecting groundwater -as a source of drinking water- from over-exploitation and pollution.
• Regulatory frameworks to guarantee final user, government and provider rights and obligations.