Memorandum submitted by Halcrow Group
Ltd
1. HALCROW GROUP
LIMITED
Halcrow is a wholly independent UK-based consultancy
company, employing over 6,000 people internationally. Approximately
1,000 of these people work on water sector related commissions.
Halcrow is currently under contract to DFID through a framework
enabling agreement and has worked for DFID for many years. Halcrow
is also one of the member organisations of Water and Sanitation
for the Urban Poor (WSUP), a public, private and civil society
partnership created with the objective of contributing towards
meeting the MDG Goal 7 targets for water supply and sanitation.
We firmly believe that working through effective partnerships
at local and international level is the way to replicate and scale
up towards meeting the challenges of MDG Goal 7.
2. WATER SERVICE
DELIVERY
Beneficiary governments should take the lead
with donors providing kick-start funding and guidance, always
helping to ensure sufficient beneficiary community participation
to engender "ownership" of the resulting project. It
is critical that the utility, public, private or community led,
is supported and developed until sustainable future operations
of installed infrastructure can be assured.The public/private
debate over recent years has proved to be a distraction and has
in fact slowed advances towards meeting the MDGs that may have
otherwise been achieved. What is needed is for infrastructure
to be managed by a sustainable utility, whether public, private
or mixed.There is a need to develop examples of success in meeting
the targets within MDG Goal 7. DFID can support replication and
scaling up through greater focus on delivering successful outcomes
in specific and targeted locations, going on to develop these
successes under different cultural and community conditions.
3. SANITATION
The three core aspects to sanitation: hygiene
promotion, household sanitary arrangements and sewage treatment
Delivery of improved water supply into urban
communities is a flawed concept unless effective attention is
also given to the corresponding sanitation and hygiene needs.
In some locations, piped sewerage systems can provide the infrastructure
element of these needs. However, such systems can be expensive
to install and we need to look for truly low cost but effective
ways of achieving the target of basic sanitation. A one size fits
all approach is inappropriate and we must constantly look for
low cost approaches where these meet the local needs. Equally,
where sewage treatment is necessary, affordable and appropriate
to protect the natural environment, we should be looking towards
natural wastewater treatment technologies to provide low operating
costs and more sustainable solutions.
4. FINANCING
AND AID
INSTRUMENTS FOR
WATER AND
SANITATION
Much evidence has been published concerning
the impact of corruption on the effectiveness of aid efforts.
There is now a growing concern that aid through budgetary support,
whilst sound in theory, has not helped to reduce this impact,
particularly in countries with weak institutional capacity. The
time has come to reconsider budgetary support, particularly in
terms of its effectiveness as a mechanism for delivery of sustainable
infrastructure. Other aid delivery mechanisms need to be considered
that are better able to target funding towards those beneficiary
entities most able to deliver sustainable operation of that infrastructure.
Aid is often delivered through support to NGOs
working with local beneficiaries or via private sector consultancies
without input from NGOs. Each brings different expertise/qualities
but projects aimed at the challenges posed by MDG Goal 7 invariably
need expertise from both, together with the local stakeholders.
Aid based measures are more likely to be effective in scaling
up if they are delivered through multi-sector and inclusive partnerships.
DFID's efforts to achieve improved co-ordination
between different funding agencies are to be applauded. However,
there is still much to do in this respect to donors working effectively
together and with the beneficiaries and to reduce the examples
that are evident of funding agencies in fact competing with each
other. There are many examples of lead donors being in place within
countries and sectors, however, there are perhaps fewer examples
where those lead donors are truly empowered and trusted to perform
by the support donors involved.
True beneficiary community involvement from
the inception of projects is critical to success. Much of that
community involvement is built upon trust developed between the
community and the providers of support including development of
infrastructure. Whilst current procurement guidelines adopted
by most providers of funding are soundly based theoretically,
the guidelines that require different service providers to be
employed at different stages of development of projects means
that the critical foundation of trust will be broken. These procurement
guidelines should be re-examined to enable trust once built to
be maintained throughout the project lifecycle.
Similarly the State Aid provisions within the
EU which are intended to help open up competition across the EU
mean that DFID and other donors are constrained from supporting
true multi-sector partnerships to the extent necessary without
entering into competition. Such competition potentially inhibits
the development of good partnerships that are critical to success
in meeting MDG Goal 7. These provisions also need to be re-examined
and transparently made more flexible to better enable replication
and scale-up.
5. DFID'S ORGANISATIONAL
CAPACITY FOR
SUPPORT TO
WATER AND
SANITATION
Over recent years, DFID has downsized both centrally
and within beneficiary countries. This has inevitably meant that
it has a limited in-house capacity to deliver the wide range of
inputs needed in target countries. There is an enormous wealth
of developmental knowledge within consultancies and NGOs and DFID's
framework enabling agreements and resource centres can help to
channel this knowledge through DFID into beneficiary countries
and communities. However, more effective use of these agreements
could be made to draw in specialist advice and to ensure that
DFID country teams receive the benefit of best practice advice.
DFID officers should be encouraged to involve external specialists
from the very inception of its programmes, rather than by issuing
terms of reference that already may be constrained in their effectiveness
at delivering successful outcomes.
There is also a need to avoid fragmentation
of the service provision drawn down through the different framework
agreements and resource centre arrangements (eg between those
related to infrastructure, health and education, all of which
are relevant to achieving the MDG Goal 7). This will require effective
internal communication and coordination, as well as flexibility
in the way the agreements operate, in order that cross-disciplinary
teams can be deployed in line with actual needs).
6. WATER RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
Fresh water is a finite resource and like many
other natural resources its exploitation has major implications
that affect human and animal life and the environment. Conversely,
human activities and the exploitation of other natural resources
may severely affect the availability of fresh water. The effects
are not limited to the locality of the activities and can be felt
in areas many miles away. It is also possible that improvements
to the environment can have a positive effect on the availability
of fresh water. Even when considering fresh water alone, competing
demands made by humans and other life means that benefits to one
sector are often at the expense of another. When considering how
to hit the target relating to water and sanitation within MDG
Goal 7, due thought should be given to the wider picture and projects
should incorporate a wider scope.
For example, improvements to garbage management
and surface water drainage not only reduce the potential for pollution
of water resources but also contribute to the reduction in water
related disease such as malaria and preservation of forests may
prevent the erosion of land and reduce the siltation of reservoirs.
In a similar vein, innovations in the collection of water before
it runs into the ground or evaporates may substantially increase
the availability of water. Water resource management is not a
responsibility limited to providers but also something that water
users should share and education can play a large part in this.
7. IMPROVING
HEALTH AND
EDUCATION THROUGH
WATER AND
SANITATION INTERVENTIONS
MDG Goal 7 is about ensuring environmental sustainability.
Water supply and sanitation are only two aspects of this, although
essential in their own right and in combination. However, successful
and sustainable outcomes will only be achieved if they include
the wider issues of health education and hygiene.
8. GENDER ASPECTS
OF WATER
AND SANITATION
ISSUES
We recognise the essential integration of gender
issues into projects through effective community participation.
We also recognise that this is one of the key areas where NGOs
can provide critical inputs to projects more so than can consultancies.
9. IMPLICATIONS
OF CLIMATE
CHANGE FOR
WATER AND
SANITATION
Climate change is predicted to result in more
unpredictable weather patterns, decreased seasonal storage of
water, increasing numbers of droughts and a reduction in the area
of low lying land. Increasing global temperature will also lead
to increased evaporation of fresh water sources. These phenomena
are happening in parallel with depletion of underground water
resources, population growth and increasing demand for irrigation
water for agriculture. The net result will be even greater pressure
on existing water resources, with a greater number of irrigation
schemes threatening potable water supplies and more expensive
abstraction and treatment being required. Sanitation will also
be affected through flooding and disruption of sewage services,
potentially adding to pollution of the water supply and increasing
disease risk.
Access to water and water services will become
increasingly important and pro-poor approaches will need to ensure
that water rights apply to users rather than owners. It will be
important that the poor are involved in constructing and operating
water infrastructure, in order to "earn" rights over
it and ensure that benefits are not directed away from them. Gender
is important here, as women tend to have significantly fewer rights
over water resources but have a crucially important role to play
in obtaining safe drinking water for dependents. In general, climate
change will increase the potential for the poor (particularly
the urban poor) to remain in absolute poverty unless more attention
is paid to issues of access. DFID can play an important role in
ensuring that such considerations are properly taken into account
during both planning and operational phases of infrastructure
development.
October 2006
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