Speech by H.R.H. the Prince of Orange, Chair of the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB), Singapore International Water Week, 23 June 2009
"Sustainable Cities, Infrastructure and Technologies for Water"
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my pleasure to be with you today for the Ministerial Forum "Leadership and Opportunities" at the occasion of this 2nd Singapore International Water Week. I would like to congratulate the founders of this event since it is becoming an effective platform to discuss pressing issues like water governance, technology and water business in the region and in the world. I am pleased to see that Singapore is taking a leading role to ensure that water, with its indispensable role for development, gets the attention it deserves.
This year you will identify ways to ensure our cities are sustainable through well designed water infrastructure and innovative technology. Before reflecting on these topics, I will briefly outline the work of the United Nations Secretary General's Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation.
Our Board's main task is to stimulate national governments, international organizations and regional and global development banks to take coordinated action to meet the Millennium Development Goal for water and sanitation. And our main guide is the Hashimoto Action Plan launched at the third World Water Forum in March 2006. The action plan is short and concise. It contains no new mandates or proclamations. Instead, it concentrates on the targets the international community has already set for itself. So our message is a simple one: our role is not to create more international goals or declarations. Let's implement the ones we already have. It's time for getting things done on the ground!
Within that scope, we have held regional dialogues in Africa, South-East Asia, the Arab Region, Latin America and the Caribbean as well as the wider Black Sea Region. All have resulted in agreements to enhance future collaboration on the six priority areas set forth in the Hashimoto Action Plan. I am pleased to see that the Asia Pacific region is taking the implementation of the HAP very seriously and is making big steps forward on achieving the MDG on water and sanitation.
Sanitation, we know, is an unpopular subject. It is a very private matter and public discussion about toilets, sewage systems and personal hygiene can be challenging. But discussing sanitation issues openly, with respect of cultural sensitivities, is exactly what we must do. Progress hinges on political will and public education. The latest Joint Monitoring Report conducted by the World Health Organization and UNICEF estimates that just one dollar invested in sanitation yields a return of nine dollars. So, in this era of global financial insecurity, sanitation technology and infrastructure is one of the most reliable long-term investment opportunities around! Safe sanitation also affords human health, dignity and development, the value of which is immeasurable.
Last year was the International Year of Sanitation and we've been truly gratified by the increased action and growing political will. Now, we see an opportunity to build on this enthusiasm to promote what we call 'the other side of sanitation', in particular water re-use and wastewater treatment.
Considering our limited freshwater resources along with growing demand, faecal contamination of water is a major concern. In Asia, some 1.8 billion people in the region have poor access to sanitation, representing about 70% of the people worldwide lacking sanitation. In Southeast Asia alone, 13 million tons of untreated faeces are released to inland water sources each year, along with 122 million m3 of urine and 11 billion m3 of grey water. As a result, diarrhoea from polluted water remains the number one cause of child health problems in Asia! These figures truly upset me!
Ladies and gentlemen, the rapidly expanding economies in Asia are helping to drive increased urbanization, expanding industrialization and intensified agriculture - all of which are expected to further push the demands for water, energy, and raw materials in the coming decade.
At the same time and as a result of climate change, the Asia-Pacific Region faces some of the world's biggest and most difficult water management problems. The IPCC predicts that freshwater availability will decrease while becoming more variable. These trends will further stress natural resources and the environment causing declines in agricultural and forestry production. Without immediate attention we will face water security challenges worldwide.
Therefore wastewater treatment and water reuse definitely should be part of the discussion. However, wastewater treatment requires large capital investments. That is one reason why globally, less than 5% of the consumed water is recycled. The 95% that is not recycled represents a tremendous opportunity to reduce pollution while simultaneously reclaiming the precious resources of water.
During this week you will explore innovative technological approaches. Technologies for recycling water do exist. It is a matter of choosing the right technology that fits the demands and circumstances and what's even more important is convincing economists and decision makers that water recycling is feasible. In addition operation and maintenance must be incorporated into any water treatment proposal from the beginning. Singapore is one of the best examples in the world where used water is already being recycled on a large scale.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Talking about innovative technologies I should not forget to pay tribute to Professor Gatze Lettinga from the Netherlands who has been awarded this year with the prestigious "Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize" for his groundbreaking work in the field of water treatment. The Lettinga' concept enables used water to be purified cost-effectively and produces alternative energy, fertilizers and soil conditioners. This anaerobic water treatment technology is suitable for developing and developed countries and it can be applied in urban as well as in rural areas. I am not here to explain the details of innovative technologies but to encourage you to study them, introduce them and implement them back home.
Innovative approaches are also important when it comes to financing of water and sanitation infrastructure and operation and maintenance. In times of economic downturn, it is easy to cut back on essential services and to defer maintenance on essential service facilities.
It is clear that central governments can no longer provide 100% of the finance to build and maintain the water and sanitation facilities needed. UNSGAB is highly supportive of developing local currency-based debt markets for countries to finance their water and sanitation system needs to meet the MDG. Therefore we have entered into dialogue and cooperative working agreements with international financial institutions such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. We have agreed to work with them to develop better models and financial tools to leverage their financial resources to support water and sanitation in local currency markets.
It is neither realistic nor feasible for local governments to meet water and sanitation capital needs by borrowing on the international debt markets. In fact, it would be highly costly and, in today's market, virtually impossible. Rather than fold our tents and throw up our hands, we must find the opportunities in this financial crisis by becoming more innovative and creative. We must encourage individual countries to develop their debt markets, change their policies towards the local authorities' responsibilities and provide them with the legal and administrative tools and training to develop, finance and manage their own infrastructure, particularly for water and sanitation.
Last, but not least I wish to touch on an initiative that we already consider a baby of UNSGAB, "Water Operators Partnerships", also known as WOPs. These partnerships are a way to help public utilities acquire the much needed skills and know-how in an innovative and cost-effective way. We have handed over this baby to UN-Habitat who is now in charge of administering the Global WOPs programme but UNSGAB intends to stay a strong advocate of WOPs.
The reason is very simple; improving utilities' effectiveness (especially in serving the poor), their efficiency and sustainability is at the heart of the global water supply and sanitation challenge. Fostering collaboration between utilities to share knowledge and exchange experiences between them, in order to improve on effectiveness and efficiency of the non-performing ones, is a vital element in meeting the challenge and sustain the positive outcomes of the sector reforms. Facilitated by the twinning programme of the Asian Development Bank, I know that also PUB is involved in WOPs schemes and I hope many more utilities in the region will follow suit.
Having said this, I would like to conclude with the praiseworthy fact that the Singapore International Water Week attracts so many experts, policy makers and leaders from all over the world. You all bring in much needed new ideas, approaches and innovative concepts. However the challenge remains to translate these innovative concepts to real actions on the ground. Therefore my credo is avoid talking in circles, learn from each other, get things done, still billions of people are desperately waiting for potable water and a clean toilet!
Thank You!