Who will pay US $80 billion for basic sanitation?

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Who will pay US$ 80 billion to halve the no. of people without basic sanitation?

To read this article in hindi language, please click here

Courtesy : Dr Omesh Bharati.

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All the money is going to vaccines. Who cares for sanitation? - Jagannath.

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How will we achieve the millennium development goal (MDG) target to reduce by

half the proportion of 2.6 billion people who have no access to basic sanitation

by 2015?

On this year's World Water Day (22 March 2008), to put the spotlight on

sanitation the United Nations General Assembly declared the year 2008 as the

International Year of Sanitation. The goal is to raise awareness and to

accelerate progress towards the MDG targets to halve the number of people

without access to basic sanitation by 2015.

Where is the estimated US$ 10 billion annual cost to achieve this MDG target by

2015 going to come from? From 2008-2015, we will need US$ 80 billion to achieve

this target which will halve the number of 2.6 billion people who presently have

no access to basic sanitation (and even if we achieve this MDG target it will

still leave the other half (1.3 billion people) without access to basic

sanitation in 2015!).

This amount is less than 1% of world military spending in 2005, one-third of the

estimated global spending on bottled water, or about as much as Europeans spend

on ice cream each year.

" Private corporations, including the bottled water companies, who have largely

demonstrated ruthless capital-intensive approach with blatant disregard to

environmental or ecological aspects depriving local communities from access to

natural resources, should be the ones to foot this bill. Not the public sector

or governments of developing countries " says Dr Sandeep Pandey, Ramon Magsaysay

awardee (2002) and Convener of National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM).

Aggressive marketing targeted at those `who-have-money-to-pay' has contributed

extensively to exacerbate the gap between the rich and poor communities. This

has not only jeopardized basic human rights to life and dignity of the

underserved communities, but also left the `rich' with a mountainous burden of

lifestyle diseases to deal with.

Water is a public good, not a commodity to be bought and sold. Increasing

corporate control of water is undoubtedly alarming.

" Corporations are contributing to, and then profiting from, the global water

crisis, " had said Mulvey, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability

International. She stressed further that " One of the greatest threats to

people's access to water today is that corporate use of water is often

prioritized over people's daily use. "

The money required to achieve MDG goals by halving the number of people who

don't have access to basic sanitation is ONE-THIRD of the global spending on

bottled water. " If one-third of the profits from bottled water companies can

help 1.3 billion people to get access to basic sanitation, not doing that and

letting bottled water companies mint money is outrageous " asserts Dr Pandey.

As water becomes more precious, corporations like Coke, Pepsi, Nestlé, Suez and

Veolia are increasingly trying to control and profit from it. Ironically enough,

at the same time, these corporations are trying to position themselves as

`improving' people's access to water.

As natural rights, water rights are usufructuary rights (water can be used but

not owned). People have a right to life and the resources that sustain it, such

as water. The necessity of water to life is why, under customary laws, the right

to water has been accepted as a natural, social fact.

That is why governments and corporations cannot alienate people of their water

rights. On this World Water Day and beyond, not only we need to challenge the

alarming corporate control of water, but also stake a claim to financial and

natural resources that rightfully should be utilized to provide access to basic

sanitation to all.

Published so far in:

The Zimbabwe Times, Zimbabwe

The Brunei Times, Brunei Darussalam

Assam Times, Assam, India

Scoop Independent News, New Zealand

Asian Tribune (Thailand/ Sri Lanka)

News Blaze, US

The Viewspaper

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