WaterAid's Stockholm World Water Week blog

19 August 2008

WaterAid's Chief Executive Barbara Frost

Credit: WaterAid

WaterAid Chief Executive Barbara Frost blogs from Stockholm at the annual World Water Week, where 2500 delegates from over 140 countries meet to address global water and sanitation issues.

Day 4

Yesterday we held a side event to raise awareness of sanitation as one of the most cost effective public health interventions. 

We need to broaden our thinking and work with colleagues from both the health and education sectors in order to bring about the most effective change.

The event allowed us to think about how this could happen through closer collaboration between health and water ministries at government level and, at the local level, how health extension workers could work to promote sanitation and hygiene.

This morning I attended a meeting organised jointly by The Netherlands, Tajikistan, Germany and Japan to discuss the UN High Level event taking place in New York in November.

These governments have taken the initiative to organise a partnership event on water and sanitation. I was delighted to see the enthusiasm and energy in the room and I very much hope to see some concrete outputs to crown all the efforts that have taken place so far this year to move water and sanitation higher up on the international agenda.

This week has given us many opportunities to share ideas with colleagues, in particular to hear experiences from those working at the local level in South Asia and Africa. It's clear to me that solving the sanitation and water crisis is not just about science or economics but also about the power of communities to make their voices heard at all levels.

Day 3

Changing human behaviour – no mean feat.

Yesterday I attended an all day seminar focusing on how we can encourage behavioural change. We know that improved hygiene practices like hand-washing with soap can prevent the transmission of diseases, but it's an incredibly complex subject to sell, to donors, fundraisers, politicians and to the communities where we work.

All too often well-meaning agencies and government bodies have gone into communities and delivered beautiful, new, clean latrines but with no explanation of why they are so important and no personal investment by the people who are expected to use them. So while they look fantastic the latrines just don't get used.

There were some really interesting discussions about what motivates behaviour change. It's clear that health is a weak motivator, just take a look at the example of smoking in the western world compared to say going to the gym - the human condition is often motivated by looking good, keeping up appearances as it were, rather than a genuine desire to be healthy. The consensus in the room was that we need to market hand-washing and sanitation as if they were consumer products. Consumers see the building of a toilet as a home improvement bringing a change in social status not as a health intervention. People use soap to make hands look, feel, and smell good, not to prevent sickness.

Today, I'm giving a presentation at the Stockholm Water Prize Laureate's seminar, WaterAid won this prestigious prize back in 1995 and it takes pride of place in our 'trophy' cabinet back in Vauxhall. The focus of my talk will of course be sanitation – what else in 2008, the UN's International Year of Sanitation? I'm going to talk about the change required, I'm hammering it home that we need that change at a political level. Eight years ago the UN member states came together to agree to seven Millennium Development Goals. Some might say they were ambitious, but the sanitation and water targets were only to halve the proportion of people without access to sanitation and water, which if met would still leave billions without this basic human right. At the current rate of progress (and I use the word progress very, very loosely) the world is not going to meet these goals in 2015 as promised, but years even generations later. In Sub-Saharan Africa the sanitation target will be met in 2108 and water in 2035.

There is a clear and urgent need for change at all levels, international, national and local. For our part WaterAid will continue working to push for this change at the top via our policy and advocacy work, and at the grass roots level we will continue to give support to citizens and communities so that they are also empowered to demand the necessary finance and capacity. It's time that the poor held the world's leaders to account for promises not met.

Day 2

Today we're tackling the silent taboos!

WaterAid and the International Research Centre (IRC) held a thought provoking joint session on the more taboo side of the sanitation question. Feeding back from a workshop held in the South Asia region, they went beyond the construction of latrines to talk about manual scavenging in India and menstrual hygiene management in Bangladesh.

In India, manual scavenging is deeply ingrained in the caste system. Dalits are expected to empty public and private latrines and pick up human waste from the railway track with their hands. We are supporting a local partner in the region as they campaign for an end to this practice and provide training and skills to enable Dalits to enter more dignified jobs.

On menstrual hygiene, Rokeya Ahmed from Bangladesh spoke passionately about the shame and silence surrounding menstruation, the extortionate costs of sanitary pads and the use of dirty rags which impacts on women's health. It's a difficult subject to talk about in front of a room full of academics, technicians and scientists and I was very impressed with how Rokeya got her message across. It's an issue we all need to work harder on, and break down more of those tiresome taboos.

In the corridors, and over Swedish coffees, there's also a lot of discussion about how we monitor and measure the impact of commitments made during the UN's International Year of Sanitation.

A lot was promised this time last year and a lot has been achieved:

• At the AfricaSan conference in February African ministers came together to commit to real action on sanitation with the signing of the eThekwini declaration
  
• In March there was an African Water Week
  
• In June the Africa Union came together, and although the media focused on the Zimbabwean presidency there was also an unprecedented level of attention given to sanitation
  
• In July the G8 met and for the first time they actually put the dirty 's' word on the agenda. It was disappointing not to see more of a commitment from the eight richest, most powerful nations in the world to an issue which we all now know could save millions of children's lives and could have a very positive effect on the economies of developing countries.

The End Water Poverty campaign has been working tirelessly all year putting pressure on world leaders to demand a Global Action Plan for sanitation.

Still to come, there's the UN's Millennium Development Goal High Level event in September... But the proof of the pudding will be the impact in the developing world at the country level - is sanitation making it into national poverty reduction strategies? Are national budget and donor aid allocations increasing? Is there greater coordination across policy and practice?

Day 1

Today the conference kicks off in earnest, although there were a few events yesterday, including two hosted by WaterAid, which were well attended and provoked some lively debate.

We presented initial findings from research carried out this year into how aid money is being spent (or more to the point, not being spent) in the water and sanitation sector. Today marks the official opening of the week and as usual I'm slightly overwhelmed with the choice of events to go to and the wealth of expertise here. 

The opening plenary set the standard for the week with a wide range of important speakers, including HRH Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. He used the opportunity to remind everyone of the vital importance of the International Year of Sanitation – what's been achieved so far and the need to focus efforts and attention on the UN High Level Event in New York later this year.

Also the President of Madagascar, His Excellency Marc Ravalomanana, set out his government's commitment to the sector and announced the formation of the new Ministry for Water and Sanitation. This might not sound like big news to some, but believe me this is exactly what is needed; developing countries taking the lead on this neglected area of development. Showing leadership at the top, alongside the grass roots activity and citizens action, is really important in order to achieve our vision of a world where everyone has access to water and sanitation.

Tomorrow, the seminars and side events begin. My WaterAid colleagues will present lessons from South Asia on the little heard about but very important issue of menstrual hygiene management. As you can imagine, it is quite a taboo subject both in developing countries and in developed countries, but it's crucial that we address it.

• Go to the Stockholm World Water Week website (opens in a new window)
• Nelson Gomonda is WaterAid's Regional Policy and Advocacy Advisor for Southern Africa. Read his response to the formation of Madagascar's new Ministry for Water and Sanitation here.
• Maggie Black has written a powerful article for the Guardian demanding attention to the global sanitation crisis. Read Sanitation: Creating a stink about the world's wastewater here (opens in a new window).