Policy Development for Sustainable Sanitation within CSD

1. Policy Development for Sustainable Sanitation within CSD Arno Rosemarin

2. Sustainable Sanitation • A sanitation system that is sustainable protects and promotes human health, does not contribute to environmental degradation or depletion of the resource base, is technically and institutionally appropriate, economically viable and socially acceptable. • EcoSanRes (Sweden), GTZ, WSSCC, CECIPROC (Mexico), Urban Water (Sweden), Stockholm Water Company – April 2004

3. Elements of Sustainable Sanitation? • Essential features: containment, sanitisation and recycling - things that conventional sanitation fails to do • Requires a change inattitude about human excreta and use of water • Source-separation of urine, faeces and greywater • Closing the nutrient and water loops • Ecosystem approach • Polluter Pays Principle • Protection of downstream health and environment • Local management and financing • Decentralisation of infrastructure • Equitable service for all

5. Shifting from ”Water and Sanitation” to ”Soil and Sanitation” • Water is always given fiscal priority over sanitation and more water is thought to be the solution for pollution • Polluter Pays Principle is not generally being applied to municipal sanitation • Eutrophication of waterways and nitrate pollution of groundwater are ”institutionalised realities” requiring enormous investments to remediate • Sanitation as a preventative to protect water resources is not a global priority • Water pricing needs to include the full costs of sanitation • With sustainable sanitation, water pollution becomes a smaller problem dealing with mainly greywater • Soil and soil organisms become the main recipient of human excreta

6. The New Paradigm

7. What is Wrong with Conventional Sanitation? • Half the world lacks decent sanitation • Associated diseases kill 1.8 million people per yr and keep 1.2 billion people parasitised (WHO, 2004) • Sewage systems use 40% of urban water and are unaffordable for most of the world • 80% of the huge costs for sewer systems are pipes and pumps, little is left for treatment, and the products cannot be recycled • Pit latrines, cesspits and sewage systems pollute ground and surface water • Only 79 of 550 large European cities have advanced sewage treatment. EU has moved the sanitation agenda to being an IWRM issue • To equip all urban wastewater streams in the world with tertiary treatment would cost ca 80-100 billion dollars per year to 2015 (the entire annual global ODA budget) • Alternatives are thus absolutely necessary

9. Akhtar Hameed Khan, Director of the Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi, Pakistan • "On the brink of the 21st century, half the world's people are enduring a medieval level of sanitation. Almost 3 billion individuals do not have access to a decent toilet, and many of them are forced to defecate on the bare ground or queue up to pay for the use of a filthy latrine. This unconscionable degradation continues despite a fundamental truth: Access to safe water and adequate sanitation is the foundation of development. For when you have a medieval level of sanitation, you have a medieval level of disease, and no country can advance without a healthy population.” • UNICEF's 1997 Progress of Nations Study

10. Sandra Postel, Director of the Global Water Policy Project • ”We are entering an unprecedented period of water stress globally. In 2015, nearly 3 billion people -- 40 percent of the projected world population -- will live in countries that find it difficult or impossible to mobilize enough water to satisfy the food, industrial, and domestic needs of their citizens. How nations respond to this dilemma, individually and collectively, will have serious implications for food security, for the health of the aquatic environment, and for social and political stability. A new mindset for water policy and management is required if we are to meet the needs of 9 billion people while protecting the health of the aquatic environment that our economies and all life depends upon”.

11. Barbara Evans, WSP • “The sanitation crisis is just that – a crisis. It is as shocking as AIDS, as debilitating as Malaria, and as solvable as Polio. Simply meeting the sanitation target by 2015 could avert 391 million cases of diarrhoea a year (and with them the loss of years of schooling, and years of productive and social life). Overall, meeting the target could garner an economic gain in the order of US$63 bn every year. And if we get it right all this could come at the price of just over US$9.5 bn each year. It is a large number, but it is dwarfed by the potential gains which could result, and we already know that significant elements of this could be mobilized in households and within communities who are desperate to improve their appalling living conditions.” • Evans et al. 2004. Closing the Sanitation Gap – the Case for Better Public Funding of Sanitation and Hygiene. OECD Round Table on SD. 9-10 March 2004. 25p.

12. Sanitation at CSD-12 • Informal side events • ”Think pieces” – independent papers • Formal agency reports • Formal governmental meetings with prepared statements • Discussion periods • Key new feature was the interaction between technical experts and policymakers • Generally interpreted as a success compared to previous CSD meetings

13. Summary of Discussions on Sanitation at CSD-12 • WHO, UNICEF and national governments were mainly concerned with introducing basic sanitation • WHO provided the most significant input in their assessment of how beneficial water and sanitation investments can be (15-fold benefit over costs) but also estimated the enormous investment needs (11 billion additional dollars per year for the next decade) • IWA stressed the need for full-scale demonstration projects educating communities about alternatives to high cost sanitation • EU mentioned that ecosan approaches should be promoted • SIDS called for approprite technologies • NGO stakeholders summary emphasised the need to integrate water, sanitation and human settlements

14. Summary of Discussions on Sanitation at CSD-12 • WOMEN called for ecosan guidelines ready for CSD-13 (EcoSanRes and WHO are working on this already) • GTZ stressed the need for ecosan development • China informed about the huge ecosan successes in Guangxi Province villages (initiated by Sida) • Sweden emphasised the need for ecosan and the ecosystem approach • Switzerland described ecosan as a strategy and not a single choice of technology • The pre-CSD OECD meeting in Paris described the mammoth task of providing sanitation as next to impossible. GWP and WWC suggested IWRM as the strategic platform for putting sanitation on the global agenda

15. Think-pieces Dealing with Sanitation • Water and Poverty in a Macro-economic Context - by Stein Hansen and Ramesh Bhatia • Community-Managed Sanitation Services for the Urban Poor in Asia, Africa and Latin America: Constraints to Scaling-up of ‘Islands of Success’ - by Ramesh Bhatia • The Challenge of Financing Sanitation - by Meera Metha and Andreas Knapp • Whatever happened to Sanitation? - Practical Steps to Achieving a Core Development Goal - by Barbara Evans • Monitoring and Evaluation Activities for the MDGs - by Environmental Resources Management • Who Lacks Service? A Typology of Communities Lacking Access to Water Supply and Sanitation - by Jenna Davis • Ecological Sanitation - by Petter Jenssen, J. Heeb, E. Huba-Mang, K. Gnanakan, W. Warner, K. Refsgaard, T.A. Stenström and K. W. Alsén

16. Summary • Sanitation is now on the global policy agenda and the size of the mammoth job of providing sanitation to the world is now being acknowledged by major institutions • Sustainable sanitation and sustainable infrastructure have not yet entered the policy or fiscal arena • This requires a global effort to build capacity and better understanding about possible appropriate options plus cost-benefit assessments • It also requires new policies to implement sustainable sanitation, creating broad institutionalisation with emphasis on local action • Strategies for improved sanitation services are required involving local-based fiscal planning • Appropriate and sustainable sanitation solutions should be given priority • Full-scale demonstration projects and increased R and D are required • Information programmes are needed to involve the general public

17. Relevant Follow-up Conferences • Water and Wastewater Management for Developing Countries (IWA) July 28-30 Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe • Stockholm Water Symposium Aug 16-20 • World Urban Forum Sept 13-17 Barcelona • World Water Congress (IWA) Sept 19-24 Marrakech • Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Forum (WSSCC) Nov/Dec Dakar • CSD-13 May 2-13 2005 New York (the Policy Phase for Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements)