scholarly journals Global challenges in water, sanitation and health

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (S1) ◽  
pp. 41-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine L. Moe ◽  
Richard D. Rheingans
Keyword(s):  
Water Reuse ◽  
Distribution Systems ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Water Supplies ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Safe Water ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
Basic Sanitation ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Sanitation Systems

The year 2005 marks the beginning of the “International Decade for Action: Water for Life” and renewed effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce by half the proportion of the world's population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015. Currently, UNICEF and WHO estimate that 1.1 billion people lack access to improved water supplies and 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. Providing safe water and basic sanitation to meet the MDGs will require substantial economic resources, sustainable technological solutions and courageous political will. We review five major challenges to providing safe water and sanitation on a global basis: (1) contamination of water in distribution systems, (2) growing water scarcity and the potential for water reuse and conservation, (3) implementing innovative low-cost sanitation systems, (4) providing sustainable water supplies and sanitation for megacities, and (5) reducing global and regional disparities in access to water and sanitation and developing financially sustainable water and sanitation services.

Securing 2020 vision for 2030: climate change and ensuring resilience in water and sanitation services

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Howard ◽  
Katrina Charles ◽  
Kathy Pond ◽  
Anca Brookshaw ◽  
Rifat Hossain ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Management Approaches ◽  
Sanitation Systems ◽  
Water Supply And Sanitation

Drinking-water supply and sanitation services are essential for human health, but their technologies and management systems are potentially vulnerable to climate change. An assessment was made of the resilience of water supply and sanitation systems against forecast climate changes by 2020 and 2030. The results showed very few technologies are resilient to climate change and the sustainability of the current progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) may be significantly undermined. Management approaches are more important than technology in building resilience for water supply, but the reverse is true for sanitation. Whilst climate change represents a significant threat to sustainable drinking-water and sanitation services, through no-regrets actions and using opportunities to increase service quality, climate change may be a driver for improvements that have been insufficiently delivered to date.

scholarly journals An Approach Incorporating User Preferences in the Design of Sanitation Systems and Its Application in the Rural Communities of Chiapas, Mexico

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1024
Author(s):  
Thalía Turrén-Cruz ◽  
Juan Alejandro García-Rodríguez ◽  
Rodrigo E. Peimbert-García ◽  
Miguel Ángel López Zavala
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Universal Coverage ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
Human Aspects ◽  
Basic Sanitation ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Technical Features ◽  
Sanitation Systems

Globally, the numerous efforts exerted toward providing basic sanitation services to people have not been sufficient to achieve universal coverage. In developing countries worldwide, many policies, strategies, initiatives, and projects on basic sanitation have failed, despite important investments. Of the several reasons explaining the failure, it is remarkable to note that such approaches have focused mainly on improving the technology of the sanitation system without considering the human aspects, such as user preferences. Moreover, there is currently no comprehensive approach that ensures the provision of a sanitation service that users want or need to satisfy their needs. In this regard, this study proposed an approach to identify the variables and indicators that represent user preferences in the selection and creation of more holistic sanitation strategies, technologies, systems, and services. The proposed approach was applied in rural communities of Chiapas, the poorest state of Mexico, and was effective in identifying user preferences, which suggests that it could be an intrinsic part of the design, planning, and implementation process toward leading rural communities to achieve sustainable development goals on universal basic sanitation. The evaluation results also demonstrated that among the preferences linked to the technical features, esthetics, costs of the system, and socioeconomic-related aspects were the most important to be considered in the provision of basic sanitation. The study points out the necessity of understanding how culture, preferences, practices, and socioeconomic conditions directly affect the possibilities for users to gain access to basic sustainable sanitation services.

scholarly journals A STUDY OF DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION IN INDIA UNDER THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS 2030

2019 ◽  
pp. 12-20
Author(s):  
Dr. Basanta Kalita
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Addis Ababa ◽  
Paris Declaration ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
Development Goals

The SDGs agenda is the outcome of a series of international conferences on the issue of environmental sustainability. A principle of common and differentiated responsibility was endorsed by the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992) and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20 (2012). The political commitments from the world leaders were confirmed during the 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development held in Addis Ababa in July 2015 for a common policy on sustainable development. The goals are broad based and interdependent. Finally the Paris Declaration on Climate Change (2016) paved the way for the adoption of a comprehensive list of goals to be achieved by 2030. Each of the 17 sustainable development goals has a list of targets which are measured with indicators and are interdependent. The present study will be confined to the 6th goal which is ensuring “Clean water and Sanitation” in the Indian context. KEYWORDS: SDGs agenda, Climate Change, employment, sanitation services

Assessing access to safe water and monitoring progress on MDG7 target 10 (access to safe water and basic sanitation): Lessons from Kazakhstan

Water Policy ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah O'Hara ◽  
Tim Hannan ◽  
Maria Genina
Keyword(s):  
Specific Information ◽  
Government Information ◽  
Safe Water ◽  
General Relevance ◽  
Basic Sanitation ◽  
Improved Sanitation ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Base Data ◽  
Improve Health

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), designed to combat global poverty and hunger, protect the environment, improve health and sanitation and promote education and gender equality, were agreed at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000. The importance of access to clean water in the overall MDG process has been highlighted and shown to contribute to all other goals and targets. Goal 7 target 10 aims to “halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation”, compared with 1990. The aim of this MDG is clear and considered to be achievable in most countries. However, it is argued that the base data upon which the targets are set and against which progress will be measured can be problematic, partly because of reliance on poor government information and also on the apparent need of the UN to have a consistent base year and set of definitions across the world. In this paper, we report the findings of a major water and sanitation survey conducted in Kazakhstan designed specifically to quantify the current level of access, providing the base upon which to determine implementation priorities and against which to measure progress. As well as providing country-specific information the survey highlighted several important issues that have more general relevance. We raise three major questions associated with Target 10: how to define “access”, how to define “improved source” or “improved sanitation” and whether 1990 is always an appropriate base year. Moreover, we argue that there is need to reconsider the way progress is monitored and that the focus on global comparisons is detrimental to making real progress. In conclusion we argue that improving water supply and sanitation can be done in a way that is (1) appropriate for the country, (2) feasible (and fairly easy) to monitor progress and (3) more likely to be accepted by government as there is a sense of relevance.

Global Goal Setting and the Human Right to Water

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristy Clark
Keyword(s):  
Goal Setting ◽  
Universal Access ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
Human Need ◽  
Global Goal ◽  
Development Goals

Since the 1970s, global goal setting to increase access to safe drinking water has taken a number of different approaches to whether water should be primarily understood as a “human right” or a “human need.” In the Mar del Plata declaration of 1977, states both recognized a human right to water and committed themselves to achieving universal access by 1990. By the 1990 New Delhi Statement, with universal access still out of reach, the goal was renewed with a new deadline of 2000, but water was described as a human need rather than a human right. This approach was coupled with an emphasis on water’s economic values and the need for increased cost recovery, which in turn increased the focus on, and uptake of, private-sector participation in the delivery of water and sanitation services across the Global South. A similar needs-based approach was adopted at the start of the new millennium in Target 7 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but during this decade a consensus on the recognition of the human right to water also emerged in international law. As the normative status and content of this right came to be better articulated and understood, it began to influence the practice of providing water and sanitation services, and by the end of the MDG process a rights-based approach featured more prominently in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of 2015. While the provision of water and sanitation services is multifaceted, the evidence of global achievements from the 1970s onward indicates that a rights-based approach increases the priority given to the social values of such services and focuses attention on the need to go beyond technical solutions to address the structural issues at the heart of water inequality. Going forward, approaches to the provision of water and sanitation services and the human right to water will need to continue to adapt to new challenges and to changing conceptualizations of water, including the growing recognition that all living things have a right to water and that water itself can have rights.

Decision-making criteria and indicators for water and sanitation projects in developing countries

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianna Garfì ◽  
Laia Ferrer-Martí
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Multicriteria Analysis ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Local Staff ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
Basic Sanitation

Water and sanitation projects for solving the needs of small communities in developing countries are complex in nature and involve complex decision-making, which must consider technical, socio-economic and environmental dimensions. Multicriteria analysis (MCA) is a suitable decision-aid method that scores a finite number of options on the basis of a set of evaluation criteria. The main challenge in MCA is choosing the appropriate criteria and evaluation indicators to use for assessment. The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive and wide list of criteria and evaluation indicators as a guideline in MCA of water and basic sanitation projects in small rural communities of developing countries. First, the paper details the general criteria to be considered in all the projects, which are classified in to 4 main groups: technical (e.g. local resources use, appropriate management); social (e.g. local community participation, overcoming discrimination of conflict); economic (e.g. low cost, employment of local staff) and environmental criteria (e.g. atmospheric emissions, water pollution). Then, it describes technical criteria to be additionally considered in each specific type of project: water supply (e.g. water needs, independent access), water treatment (e.g. constant resource availability, flexibility of use for different types of water) and basic sanitation projects (e.g. maximum number of people per system, effluent quality).

A new paradigm for low-cost urban water supplies and sanitation in developing countries

Water Policy ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Mara ◽  
Graham Alabaster
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Water Supply ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
Poor Households ◽  
Sanitation Systems ◽  
Water Supply And Sanitation

To achieve the Millennium Development Goals for urban water supply and sanitation ∼300,000 and ∼400,000 people will have to be provided with an adequate water supply and adequate sanitation, respectively, every day during 2001–2015. The provision of urban water supply and sanitation services for these numbers of people necessitates action not only on an unprecedented scale, but also in a radically new way as “more of the same” is unlikely to achieve these goals. A “new paradigm” is proposed for low-cost urban water supply and sanitation, as follows: water supply and sanitation provision in urban areas and large villages should be to groups of households, not to individual households. Groups of households would form (even be required to form, or pay more if they do not) water and sanitation cooperatives. There would be standpipe and yard-tap cooperatives served by community-managed sanitation blocks, on-site sanitation systems or condominial sewerage, depending on space availability and costs and, for non-poor households, in-house multiple-tap cooperatives served by condominial sewerage or, in low-density areas, by septic tanks with on-site effluent disposal. Very poor households (those unable to afford to form standpipe cooperatives) would be served by community-managed standpipes and sanitation blocks.

scholarly journals Achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Efficiency in the Spanish Clean Water and Sanitation Sector

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 3015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro-José Martínez-Córdoba ◽  
Nicola Raimo ◽  
Filippo Vitolla ◽  
Bernardino Benito
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
Determining Factors ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Local Government Budget ◽  
Private Management

In recent years, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is becoming a major challenge for local governments. This research focuses on the role of Spanish local governments in the fulfillment of SDG-6, which aims to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all citizens. Specifically, this study analyses the evolution of the efficiency of Spanish local governments, and its determining factors, in the achievement of the SDG-6. The results indicate that the taxes associated with water supply and sanitation services, the private management of these services, population density, local government budget revenues, the income of the inhabitants of the municipality and the fragmentation of local governments are factors that can improve the evolution of the efficiency of Spanish local governments in achieving the SDG-6.

A framework for planning of sustainable water and sanitation systems in peri-urban areas

2008 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 563-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Törnqvist ◽  
A. Norström ◽  
E. Kärrman ◽  
P.-A. Malmqvist
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Review Of Literature ◽  
Urban Context ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Physical Conditions ◽  
Basic Sanitation ◽  
Sanitation Systems ◽  
Institutional Boundaries

There are billions of people around the world that lack access to safe water supply and basic sanitation, a situation which puts the affected in severe health conditions as well as economical and social despair. Many of those lacking adequate water supply and sanitation systems can be found at the fringe of the cities in so called peri-urban areas, especially in the developing world. Planning in these areas is highly complex due to challenging environmental and physical conditions, high population density and unclear institutional boundaries. This article presents a framework aiming to support the planning process for sustainable water and sanitation systems in peri-urban areas. The suggested framework is based on different available planning approaches from a review of literature and websites of organisations and companies. It consists of a recommendation of important steps in the planning process as well as supporting tools. Further, it incorporates a set of sustainability criteria important for the peri-urban context and allows for the development of site specific systems. The framework has the aim to be flexible for different planning situations, and for suiting planners with different perspectives and amount of resources.

scholarly journals Inclusive water poverty index: a holistic approach for helping local water and sanitation services planning

Water Policy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 758-772
Author(s):  
Janvier Kini
Keyword(s):  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Inclusive Development ◽  
Poverty Index ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Sanitation Services ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Water Poverty Index ◽  
Central Interest ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Local Water

This paper addresses two approaches to guiding the inclusion of the poor and vulnerable in clean water and sanitation programmes in the framework of Sustainable Development Goals. It proposes an operational and adapted participatory approach for identifying the poorest and most vulnerable, which has become a central interest for inclusive development policies worldwide post Millennium Development Goals. Then, it proposes an inclusive water poverty index for the inclusion of the poor and vulnerable. This index, with six components, materializes the spatial and temporal equity in the distribution of water and sanitation services through a given district or municipality, particularly in developing countries.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document