Water, Sanitation and Development

Introduction

The Millennium Development Goal 7 stipulates to improve environmental sustainability by integrating sustainable development in country policies, by reducing the biodiversity loss, by halving the proportion of people without access to safe water and sanitation and by improving lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers (UN 2010).

Expanding access to domestic water supply and sanitation services will bring the international community closer to meeting a number of other MDGs – in fact, for many of the targets, it is difficult to imagine how significant progress can be made without first ensuring that poor households have a safe, reliable water supply and adequate sanitation facilities. Meeting the target on access to water and sanitation is particularly vital in terms of the poverty, gender, and health Goals, and also has a significant impact on other Goals (UNMP-TWS 2005). According to UNDP, overall human development is more closely linked to access to water and sanitation than any other development driver, including spending on health or education, and access to energy services (UNDP 2010). 

Impact of Sustainable Sanitation and Water Management and IWRM

(Adapted from UNMP-TWS 2005)

Improved access to water and sanitation and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has various impacts on social and economic development of millions of people. Here are some key development issues which are affected by improved access to water and sanitation, and by Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM):

Poverty

• Household livelihood security depends on the health of its members, hence adults who are ill themselves or who must care for sick children are less productive.
• Illnesses caused by unsafe drinking water and inadequate sanitation generate health costs that can claim a large share of poor households’ income.
• Time spent collecting water cannot be used for other livelihood activities.
• IWRM can improve allocation (agriculture, industry, households) and reduce vulnerability to water-related hazards.

Hunger

• Healthy people are better able to absorb the nutrients in food than those suffering from water-related diseases, particularly worms, which rob their hosts of calories.
• Water is a direct input to irrigation for expanded grain production. Reliable water sources (IWRM) support subsistence agriculture, home gardens, livestock, and tree crops and thus higher nutritional standards.

Primary Education

• Relieve girls from water-fetching duties, allowing them to attend school.
• Having separate sanitation facilities for girls in schools increases their school attendance, especially after menarche.
• Reducing illness related to water and sanitation, including injuries from water-carrying, improves school attendance, especially for girls.

Gender Equality (see gender factsheet)

• Water sources and sanitation facilities closer to home put women and girls at less risk for sexual harassment and assault while gathering water and searching for privacy.
• Community-based organisations for water supply and sanitation can improve social capital of women.
• Reduced time, health, and care-giving burdens from improved water services give women more time for productive endeavours, adult education, empowerment activities, and leisure.

Child Mortality

• Higher rates of child survival are a precursor to the demographic transition to lower fertility rates; having fewer children reduces women’s domestic responsibilities.
• Sanitation and safe water in health care facilities help ensure clean delivery and reduce neonatal deaths.
• Improved sanitation, safe drinking water sources, and greater quantities of domestic water for washing reduce infant and child morbidity and mortality.
• Mothers with improved water supply and sanitation services are better able to care for their children, both because they have fewer illnesses and because they devote less time to water-fetching and seeking privacy for defecation.

Maternal Mortality

• Accessible sources of water reduce labour burdens and health problems resulting from water portage, reducing maternal mortality risks.
• Improved health and nutrition reduce susceptibility to anaemia and other conditions that affect maternal mortality.

Major Diseases (see health factsheet)

• Safe drinking water and basic sanitation help prevent water-related diseases, including diarrhoeal diseases, schistosomiasis, filariasis, trachoma, and helminthes. 1.6 million deaths per year are attributed to unsafe water, poor sanitation, and lack of hygiene.
• Improved water supply reduces diarrhoea morbidity by 21%; improved sanitation reduces diarrhoea morbidity by 37.5%; hand washing can reduce the number of diarrhoeal cases by up to 35%; additional improvements in drinking water quality, such as point of use disinfection, would reduce diarrhoeal episodes by 45%.
• Improved water management (IWRM) in human settlements reduces transmission risks of such mosquito-borne illness as malaria and dengue fever.

Environmental Sustainability

• Adequate treatment and disposal of excreta and wastewater contributes to better ecosystem management and less pressure on freshwater resources.
• Improved sanitation reduces flows of human excreta into waterways, helping to protect human and environmental health.
• Inadequate access to safe water and inadequate access to sanitation and other infrastructure are two of the five defining characteristics of a slum.

Economic Benefits of Improved Access to Water and Sanitation

Improving water supply and sanitation services can have substantial economic benefit: the WHO estimated some years ago that each $1 invested would yield an economic return of between $3 and $34, depending on the region (HUTTON / HALLER 2004). The UNDP estimated recently that an investment in water supply yields an average economic return of $4.4 to $1 and investment in sanitation a return of $9.1 to $1 (UNDP 2010).

The health-related costs avoided would reach $7.3 billion per year, and the annual global value of adult working days gained because of less illness would rise to almost $750 million. Better services resulting from the relocation of a well or borehole to a site closer to user communities, the installation of piped water supply in houses, and latrines closer to home yield significant time savings. The annual value of these time savings would amount to $64 billion if the target is met (HUTTON / HALLER 2004).

As an example, the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program estimated that inadequate sanitation caused India economic losses equivalent to 6.4% of India’s GDP in 2006 at US$53.8 billion. The report indicates that premature mortality and other health-related impacts of inadequate sanitation were the most costly with 72% of total impacts, followed by productive time lost to access sanitation facilities or sites for defecation with 20%, and drinking water-related impacts with 7.8% (WSP 2010).

Conclusion

MDG 7, which demands environmental sustainability, is considered to be a key goal and a prerequisite for overall MDG achievement. Hence it is not an isolated goal in itself, but instead forms an integral goal for all the MDGs. The provision of safe water and basic sanitation and also improved IWRM can have various, significant impacts on hunger alleviation, health, education or environmental conditions.

But still MDG 7 is displaying insignificant progress because of lacking internalisation of environmental components in socio-economic development. This is needed to protect valuable ecosystem services, such as biodiversity, fish habitats and pollination. Such services can determine the long-term capacity of human societies to buffer or absorb sudden environmental shocks, such as droughts and floods. And there is a growing realisation that huge challenges, such as eradicating hunger, will have to be achieved through environmentally sustainable solutions (SEI 2005).