The Hindu Business Line : A well-spring of promises?

Water problems of the Asia-Pacific developing countries are solvable with strong political will, leadership, and commitment. As of now, the problems and the urgency with which they have to be tackled have been understood. Action is needed and the time is short, says BHANOJI RAO.

The first ever Asia-Pacific Water Summit was held at Beppu, in Japan, on December 3 and 4, where leaders of the region deliberated on three priority themes: Water financing, disaster management and water for development and ecosystem.

Water for development and financing are relatively traditional themes, while disaster management has, of late, been the focus of policy-makers. In 2001-05, for instance, over 62,000 people in the region perished in natural disasters; the region’s share in the world’s total deaths in disasters was a high 80 per cent.

The Summit was held under the aegis of the Asia Pacific Water Forum (APWF), described as “an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan, non-political network”. APWF’s goal is to contribute to sustainable water management to achieve the targets of the Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific. Specifically, the APWF is to champion efforts aimed at boosting investments, building capacity, and enhancing cooperation in the water sector at the regional level and beyond.

AWDO 2007: Key Messages

The Asian Development Bank, a key promoter of the APWF and the Summit, prepared a background report entitled Asian Water Development Outlook, 2007 (AWDO) that was released in Singapore in late November, just a few days prior to the summit. The main objective of the AWDO is to raise the awareness of water-related issues and stimulate an informed debate on how best to manage Asia’s water future.

In less than 50 pages, AWDO has statistics to the point, country experiences that are succinct and messages that are straight and hard-hitting. One key message, for instance, affirms that “major policy changes in the water and energy sectors will be needed in the near future to balance water and energy uses in agriculture and stabilise the levels of declining groundwater tables.”

It is a known fact, especially in many Asian developing countries, that energy for pumping ground water is supplied almost at no cost or at heavily subsidised prices. In addition, farmers in some countries do not pay for the actual volume of groundwater pumped for irrigation. Over-pumping, resulting in the decline in groundwater levels, rising energy used to pump the same quantity of water and, once gain, a further decline in groundwater levels, form a vicious circle that needs to be addressed, not only to safeguard the water table and preserve the environment, but also to ensure the financial health of the state electricity authorities.

This logically leads to the next key message of AWDO: “A major challenge for Asian and Pacific developing countries in the areas of water, energy, food, and environment is how to coordinate appropriately all the concerned resource policies, legal and regulatory frameworks, and institutions responsible for formulating and implementing these policies.”

Yet another key message of AWDO is important from a public health viewpoint: “Increasing water pollution from accelerating domestic, industrial, and agricultural activities is a major issue for nearly all Asian and Pacific developing countries. Unless the present perceptions and attitudes change radically, it is likely to be a critical water problem of the future.” Consider, for instance, the water used at the household level. Almost the entire water used for drinking, bathing, washing etc is discharged as waste water. Even if the waste water is collected via sewer systems, it often ends up in “freshwater bodies, land, or oceans with only limited, or even no, treatment.” The problem of increasing wastewater contamination and its impact on water bodies needs urgent attention.

There is a strong link between energy production and the demand for water as alluded to in one of the key messages. The entire Asian and Pacific region is on a high growth path. Rising incomes will produce high rates of demand for energy. While hydro power needs water rather directly, a lot of water is also needed by thermal and nuclear power plants. Thus, as the AWDO affirms, the water requirements for the energy sector need to be factored into national water policies.

Then, there is the message regarding the special needs of the small and medium towns with less than half a million people, which will see an explosive growth in the next decade or two. Urbanisation is unstoppable and metros will naturally take the lion’s share with regard to policy and financial attention. It is timely, therefore, that the AWDO has drawn attention to the need to focus on the small and medium towns.

As stated in the opening part of this report, water management challenges during natural disasters have to be understood thoroughly and “water infrastructure and management practices have to be more robust and flexible”. In essence, the region must be ready for the next, perhaps relatively more serious, tsunamis, droughts and floods, resulting from climate change and global warming.

Water Governance

The main reason for the prevailing unacceptable situation is widespread mismanagement of the water sector, affirms AWDO. Mismanaged water utilities, often propelled by the age-old idea of providing water for domestic use free of cost or at highly subsidised rates, needs restructuring and reforming.

An important point of the AWDO is that a water crisis in the future will NOT be because of physical scarcity of water, but because of inadequate or inappropriate water governance. “Considering the expected population growth, continuing urbanisation, and increasing economic activities, this may mean, at least for the water sector, having to run faster to stay in the same place.” Since this cannot be the preferred or acceptable solution, fundamental changes in water governance practices are needed in most countries of the region.

Planning and policy-making are just not possible without reliable and timely data. AWDO acknowledges the issue and calls for according due priority for the collection and dissemination of good quality data. Also, “solving the water problems of the future will require additional skills and capacity, innovative approaches, and new mindsets” and the need is for “a more holistic approach that can successfully coordinate the energy, food, environment, and industrial policies of a nation, all of which have direct linkages to water.”

AWDO’s summary message is that water problems of the Asia-Pacific developing countries are solvable with strong political will, leadership, and commitment. As of now, the problems and the urgency with which they have to be tackled have been understood. Action is needed and the time is short.

Message from Beppu

Leaders from over 30 countries of the Asia-Pacific, including several Heads of State and Government, issued the message from Beppu on December 4 after the conclusion of what the message has described as “the historic inaugural Asia Pacific Water Summit”.

The leaders agreed to: (i) Recognise the people’s right to safe drinking water and basic sanitation as a basic human right and a fundamental aspect of human security; (ii) reduce by half the number of people who do not have access to safe drinking water by 2015 and aim to reduce that number to zero by 2025; (iii) reduce by half the number of people who do not have access to basic sanitation in our region by 2015 and aim to reduce that number to zero by 2025, through the adoption of new and innovative sanitation systems that are not as water reliant as the current methods; (iv) accord the highest priority to water and sanitation in development plans and agendas and to increase substantially allocation of resources to the water and sanitation sectors; (v) improve governance, efficiency, transparency and equity in all aspects related to the management of water, particularly as it impacts on poor communities; (vi) take urgent and effective action to prevent and reduce the risks of flood, drought and other water-related disasters and to bring timely relief and assistance to their victims; (vii) exhort the Bali Conference to take into account the relationship between water and climate change, such as the melting of snowcaps and glaciers in the Himalayas and the rising sea levels, which are already having an impact on some countries; etc.

The message ends with the statement: “We have the will and courage to realise our vision.” Where there is the will, there is the way.

(The author, formerly with the National University of Singapore and the World Bank, is a Member of the Governing Board of the GITAM University, Visakhapatnam and Visiting Faculty, Sri Sathya Sai University, Prasanthi Nilayam. He can be reached at bhanoji@gmail.com. )

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