Sanitation Key to Achieving MDGs: Feedback from the Conference on Water, Sanitation and Health for Sustainable Development
Doris N. Kumbawa
Women’s Land and Water Rights in Southern Africa in partnership with the Women for Water Partnership and the government of Botswana successfully hosted an Africa Regional Working Conference (ARWC) in Botswana from the 11th to the 14th of February 2008.
The Working Conference brought together high level experts practitioners and policy makers in the field of water, land, sanitation, environment gender and sustainable livelihoods, Regional and Economic Commissions such as the Southern Africa Development Community, Senior Government Officials at Principal Secretary level from Botswana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, Private Sector, represented by Africa Development Bank and Donor Agencies such as UN Habitat and Water Aid Southern Africa Office.
The working conference, was no mere talk shop, but provided a unique opportunity for government, civil society and representatives from donor organisations to interact and discuss the problems and solutions of water and sanitation through a gender lens. Discussions clearly outlined the need to triple efforts towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and that water and sanitation provide an entry point in achieving all the other MDGs.
It was noted that investing in MDG 7, especially on sanitation has multiple returns as every dollar spent on sanitation, is spent on at least 5 other MDGs. For every dollar spent on sanitation, at least $9 is saved in health, education, social and economic development. However, there is need to expedite the implementation of solutions to WATSAN as self esteem for women begins with proper and safe sanitation in communities and this has a ripple effect in bringing forth confident women who can drive development to meaningful levels. This supports the notion that sanitation is dignity.
The conference brought to the fore areas for future programming in addressing the problems for women in accessing adequate water and sanitation. In particular, the link between land and water and sanitation was explored through a paper presented by UN HABITAT which brought out that lack of secure access to land has a direct impact on sanitation because the poor will not invest in safe sanitation where they do not have security of tenure.
After a presentation of a paper on transboundary water management, participants also discussed the issue of benefit sharing and compensation. Discussions zeroed in on the need for civil society to lobby on behalf of riparian communities so that benefits and compensation for displacement through these projects can be meaningful and longer term for them. There is thus a need for a bottom-up approach to programming, so that communities are not left without water and sanitation yet they were displaced to make way for huge water projects.
Another paper entitled “Water Privatization and implications on Sustainable Development from a Gender Perspective” discussed privatization which has been largely seen as a failure. Nevertheless, discussions from this paper highlighted that there was still need for governments to partner with the private sector of which the latter can be important in bringing in efficiency in the management of water.
A paper was also presented by the Women’s Affairs directorate in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs in Botswana bringing out the status of affairs for women in Botswana in terms of access to land, water and sanitation, whilst the Armenian Women for a Healthy Environment presented a paper on a project that is being implemented at a school by this organisation in Armenia for ecological sanitation.
Discussion of this paper emphasized that pilot projects are only a beginning hence the need to work with government and local communities from the beginning to assist with scaling up so that the projects in water and sanitation have a greater impact on society.
Case studies presented from Mali, Lesotho, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, also brought out problems that women experience on the ground in accessing clean water and sanitation. Discussions emanating from the case studies highlighted that the design of projects needs to take into cognizance scaling up and replication. As a working conference, 4 project proposals were developed for Lesotho, Mali, Tanzania and Zimbabwe from the gaps identified confronting women at grassroots level.
