Getting to boiling point

In Ethiopia almost 70% of water budgets go unspent and 20 times more latrines need to be built every month to reach the sanitation MDG.

Credit: WaterAid / Caroline Irby

WaterAid's report Getting to boiling point, launched earlier this year, documents the brutal inadequacy of the water sector's performance in the countries where it works.

The underinvestment and financial waste which are holding the water sector back must be tackled to improve this performance if the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of halving the proportions of people lacking safe water and sanitation by 2015 are to be met.

At present spending in 14 of the countries where WaterAid works totals $3.4 billion compared with needs of $6.4 billion. However, more than 70% of this is attributable to one country, India. The other 13 countries require spending of $1.4 billion, nearly three times greater than the $494 million currently spent.

While the reasons for financial waste vary between countries, some crop up repeatedly - poor targeting of resources; failure to disburse funds to local authorities; inefficient donor duplication of spending and reporting systems; and buying expensive, unnecessarily sophisticated and unsustainable technology.

WaterAid country programmes' individual assessments of their national water sectors each identify priority actions needed to tackle this waste. All also call for more transparency within the sector - regular information on budgets, expenditure and results is vital for people to know what is happening and demand improvements where necessary.

Getting to boiling point had an immediate impact, as did many of the country assessments. Hilary Benn, the UK Secretary of State for International Development, commended the report publicly in his speech on World Water Day, 22 March 2005. Mr Benn also announced that UK aid for water in Africa would double from £47.5 million to £95 million per year and that the UK would take the lead as necessary to coordinate donor activity in up to 11 African countries.

A special event promoting Getting to boiling point was held at the United Nations in New York during the Commission for Sustainable Development. Copies were handed specially to the Ugandan Water Minister, Maria Mutagamba, who is also president of the African Ministers' Council on Water.

By David Redhouse, Policy Officer - Financing the sector

Shocking examples of the financial gap

• In Ethiopia WaterAid's assessment was distributed in April 2005 to the Ministry of Water Resources, the World Bank, partner NGOs and private water businesses. It now forms the basis of WaterAid's involvement in discussions on how to improve the effectiveness of aid from EU donors in particular. Almost 70% of water budgets in Ethiopia go unspent.
• In Bangladesh WaterAid shared its finance gap calculations with the Local Consultative Group of government and donor and NGO representatives. The final document has underpinned WaterAid's lobbying of the Government Unit for Policy Implementation which is drawing up a Water Sector Development Plan. Bangladesh's debt service payments are 16 times greater than the extra spending needed to reach the MDGs.
• WaterAid launched its Tanzanian sector assessment at a national event attended by the top civil servant from the Ministry of Water. It was given further prominence at the exhibition marking the country's National Water Week. Local authorities in Tanzania get funding worth just 11 US cents for each person they are supposed to provide with safe water.
• In Uganda WaterAid was asked to provide copies of its sector assessment by the Water Minister Maria Mutagamba for her to discuss with her Cabinet. The country's water sector needs to spend $63m more each year to reach the MDGs.
• In Mozambique WaterAid was asked by government officials returning from the UN Commission on Sustainable Development to provide more details about its sector assessment. There is no spare parts distribution network for the commonest water pump in Mozambique, the Afridev.

Update from Oasis Spring 2005

Since going to print with the Spring 2005 edition of Oasis further work has been done in Zambia, which revealed that rather than spending exceeding the need, there is actually a vast finance gap in which need outstrips spending nearly five fold.

Download the full Getting to Boiling Point Report ( PDF 2Mb)