Annex 4
WATER AND SANITATION—THE BUSINESS CASE
A paper prepared by Business Action for
Sustainable Development (BASD) August 2002—WSSD Johannesburg
WATER AND
SANITATION ARE
ESSENTIAL FOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
|
| — Poverty alleviation and preventative health care
| (SOCIAL) |
| — Economic growth | (ECONOMIC)
|
| — Ecology and environmental improvement
| (ENVIRONMENT) |
|
Investing in water and sanitation is an investment in Public
Health! Therefore sanitation must be added to the UN Millennium
goals for water.
Business and industry is action oriented. With the rest of
society it wants to accelerate the pace of improvement. To do
this it offers some key messages to government.
KEY MESSAGES
1. Add sanitation to the UN Millennium goal for water.
2. Create an enabling environment to encourage essential
investment in water infrastructure.
3. Use ODA more effectively to assist local communities
to build capacity to manage water efficiently and attract private
sector investment.
4. Involve all water stakeholders, including business
as a key partner, in water decision-making at all levels.
5. Full cost recovery to ensure that water services are
sustainable and continue to operate.
Good water, sanitation and hygiene in the community unlock
opportunities in many cross-cutting issues: eg education, gender,
youth, biodiversity... .
There is a business case for investment in water and sanitation.
It is time to move from words to action. Improving water, sanitation
and resulting hygiene means healthier and more productive employees
and customers who can participate in wealth generation and sustained
economic growth. Business prefers to operate in areas where its
customers and employees are not at risk from a lack of safe drinking
water and basic sanitation and poor health and hunger that follows.
Business needs access to water in order to produce goods and services.
To make progress there is a need to create an enabling environment
to encourage new investment in water infrastructure. This requires
governments to put in place:
— Effective water law and regulatory mechanisms
to provide an investment friendly environment.
— A decision-making process that is open, transparent
and accountable to water service customers.
— Improve governance and stamp out corruption.
— Full cost recovery for water services so
that water systems are sustainable—governments will decide
how to finance these costs through user charges and general revenue.
— Appropriate pricing policies to send conservation
and investment signals—recognizing that special arrangements
will be needed for those unable to pay the full cost.
More effective targeting of Official Development Assistance
(ODA) can help local and national governments in creating this
enabling environment. Use ODA:
— To build capacity and improve governance.
— To assist those who cannot pay the full cost
of service.
— To leverage additional private sector investment
in water and sanitation infrastructure.
Since Rio industry has been active and made significant progress.
In 1998, in cooperation with UNEP, WBCSD published 20 case studies
demonstrating how industry has reduced water consumption per unit
of production, recycled water, and reduced pollution and actively
encouraged water conservation. (Industry, Freshwater and Sustainable
Development). Industry is committed to continuous improvement
of water management in all sectors.
At the World Summit in Johannesburg, WBCSD launched its third
water report, Water for the Poor which is an action oriented
road map for delivering water services to the poor. The key messages
are:
— Accelerate the introduction of public-private-partnerships
to improve and expand water service to the poor through an open
and democratic process.
— Improve the basic framework conditions at
local and national levels to encourage greater private sector
investment and participation in water services through a wide-range
of partnerships.
— Create regulatory mechanisms and good governance
systems to (1) protect the public interest from excessive charges,
(2) ensure that water service providers recover the full cost
of providing the service, and (3) ensure service levels promised
are delivered.
Governments must own and control water on behalf of all their
citizens. Business is advocating efficient delivery of water services
by everyone including the private sector.
January 2007
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