Monthly Archives: March 2016

This interesting technical paper of Guy Hutton and Mili Varugehese from the Water and Sanitation Programme, estimates the costs of reaching the Water, Santiation and Hygiene (WASH) related targets of the Sustainable Development Goal 6, based on the proposed indicators. It estimates the investments to reach the targets to be three times higher than the current investment levels, around USD 114 billion per year.

In September 2015, the United Nation’s General Assembly adopted the new Agenda 2030 for sustainable development. In the dedicated water Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on water, two targets are dedicated to WASH (6.1 and 6.2).

Target 6.1 aims at “achieving universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all”. An estimate of 4’531’000’000 people worldwide do not yet have a water supply responding to standards needed to meet this target.

Target 6.2 aims at “achieving universal access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation (…)”. For sanitation, the total population to be reached is estimated to be of 5’309’000’000 while for hygiene (measure on access to basic hygiene), 4’828’000’000 people need to be reached in order to meet target 6.2.

Table summarizing the number of people to serve to achieve the targets set by SDG 6.1 and 6.2. Can be found on page 4 of the technical report.

The study finds that current expenditures, if they were to be targeted properly, would be enough to provide universal access to basic WASH services (an improved community water source within a 30 minutes round trip, an improved toilet and a hand-washing station with soap and water for every household).

However, the costs of achieving target 6.1 and 6.2 are estimated to be around USD 114 billion per year (range from USD 74 billion to USD 116 billion) or 0.39% (range 0.26% to 0.55%) of the sum of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the 140 countries included. This amount is about three times the current investment levels.

In both cases, it has to be noted that the global picture hides considerable inter-regional disparities, as well as disparities between countries. Globally, countries with the lowest GDP will have the highest investment to undertake to meet targets 6.1 and 6.2. Furthermore, affordability of the services provided is also a key issue, as alone the “operation costs of basic WASH services can ad up to more than 5% of the poverty income levels”.

This will require new and innovative ways of financing, as traditional bi- and multilateral aid will not be sufficient. Growing tax revenues of developing countries will contribute to it or by an adequate channelling of private sector investment.

In this regard, the paper also concludes that “sustained universal coverage requires more than capital inflows: financial and institutional strengthening will be needed to ensure that capital investments translate into effective service delivery”.

The call for applications for the International ReSource Award for resilience in water management is opened until 30 April 2016. The award “acknowledge social entrepreneurial initiatives aimed at prototyping or scaling up new approaches for resolving existing social and/or ecological issues related to sustainable water management practices”.

The prize comprises financial and non-financial (coaching/expert advice) support to the three finalist for a total amount of USD 150’000.