WATER AND DEVELOPMENT

The bias in favour of water privatisation has been deeply unhelpful and has got in the way of improving public sector provision.

Not just in Dfid but at a European level too there has been a failure to make the desired progress on water and sanitation.

The EU Water Initiative launched in 2002 aimed to promote and co-ordinate water and sanitation and within this the EU Water Facility earmarked 500 million Euros (£337m) for spending on water and sanitation projects in African, Carribean and Pacific countries.

The first half of this money was made available in 2004 but it was not until January 2006 that projects were given the green light.

Development campaigners have been highly critical of the fact that after two years not a single glass of clean water had been delivered.

But we need to be a bit careful here – there were extraordinary circumstances. The reason for the delay was that the Commission put in place a two stage evaluation process, whitling down the original 800 proposals to 97. The flip side of promoting good governance is that you need to take extra time to make sure money is being spent soundly. Fast spending may not be accountable spending.

But progress when it arrives can be dramatic. In July last year I visited a huge water project outside Kinshasa, involving water being piped from under the bed of the Congo river as well as a completely new distribution system. When that comes on tap, 8 million residents on the west side of the city will get clean water at a stroke.

Finally, there is the problem that water and sanitation services are not reaching the poorest communities because Government simply does not penetrate into some of Africa’s remote and arid areas. Support to public utilities isn’t a sufficient approach in places where there is simply no functioning administration. These remote and arid areas are the very places where climate change is already biting and water is getting ever more difficult to locate. That is why local and community schemes are so vital.

So please support the motion. There is a very very long way to go on securing universal access to water and sanitation.