Press. voanews.com
Countries need
to quadruple spending to $150 billion a year to deliver universal safe water
and sanitation, helping to reduce childhood disease and deaths while boosting
economic growth, said the World Bank. Investments should be better coordinated
and targeted to ensure services reach the most vulnerable, and governments need
to engage the private sector more closely to meet the high costs, said the
World Bank in a report released on Monday.
“Millions are
currently trapped in poverty by poor water supply and sanitation,” Guangzhe
Chen, senior director of the World Bank's global water practice, said in a
statement. “More resources, targeted to areas of high vulnerability and low
access, are needed to close the gaps and improve poor water and sanitation
services.”
The high cost of
clean water risks jeopardizing the ability of countries to meet the United
Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of providing access to safe and
affordable sanitation for all by 2030, said the World Bank.
More than three
quarters of those without piped water supplies live in rural areas, where only
20 percent have access to “improved sanitation” said the report. In cities,
poor people are up to three times less likely to have piped water than people
in better off areas.
The risk of
diarrheal diseases and malnutrition caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation
is creating a "silent emergency," with stunted growth affecting more
than 40 percent of children under five in countries including Guatemala, Niger,
Yemen and Bangladesh, said the report. It said under-nutrition could have
long-term effects on children, including poor mental development and reduced
ability to work, which would eventually affect economic development.
Some countries
fail to maintain infrastructure or struggle to cope with growing populations.
Nigeria provided piped water to fewer than 10 percent of city dwellers in 2015,
down from 29 percent 25 years earlier. In Haiti, only 7 percent of households
have piped water, compared to 15 percent previously. “Water and
sanitation services need to improve dramatically or the consequences on health
and well-being will be dire,” said Rachid Benmessaoud, Nigeria country director
for the World Bank.
No single
solution
In some
countries, tap water is even more unsafe than pond water, with around 80
percent of Bangladesh's piped supplies contaminated by E.coli bacteria, said
the report. It urged governments to better inform people and encourage more household
water treatment. Providing piped water in cities could generate economies of
scale, the bank said, urging greater private-sector involvement in urban water
provision where recovering costs may be easier. Researchers, decision makers
and aid specialists are meeting in Stockholm for the annual World Water Week
where they will focus on how to reduce waste in water use.
Water and
sanitation improvements should be linked to health programs to better tackle
disease and malnutrition, said the World Bank report. “Renewed efforts are
needed to address those populations at greatest risk of death and disease due
to inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene, which threatens human
capital and economic development,” it said.