NGO Major Group Statement
UN CSD-13, 28 February 2005
Delivered by Shiney Varghese, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
The NGO major group reaffirms that NGOs are working with communities all over the
world who are successfully managing their own resources, and actions on water
sanitation and habitat. We are willing and able to do more, but our commitment
requires action and support by governments.
Agendas and action programmes on water, sanitation and human settlements have been
accepted in various international forums. In practice, however?:
1. The human rights to adequate, affordable water, housing and sanitation are not
respected;
2. Participation although accepted is not adequately implemented;
3. Fragmentation of responsibilities between government agencies is very
problematic;
4. Prioritisation for the poor rarely occurs;
5. Impacts on the environment are not considered;
6. Over consumption of resources continue to be problematic;
7. IWRM plans are missing in most countries;
8. There is insufficient consideration of cultural diversity and gender; and
9. Objectives don?t link to local financing structures and capacities.
Thus NGOs prioritise the following actions: Safe, affordable, sufficient housing and
water are recognized human rights under international law. We will therefore strongly
support, within our means, that these principles, including inter alia, Rio Principle 10, are
recognized and incorporated into national laws and regulations, backed by measurable
implementation plans, including for the millions of people living in unplanned
settlements. An integrated sector wide approach, involving all relevant ministries and
stakeholders, needs to be the basis for planning and implementation.
Considering the lack of progress on the 2005 IWRM target, CSD 13 should agree to a
common framework for drafting and implementation of IWRM and water
efficiency plans, that should:
1. Ensure a fair and equitable allocation of water;
2. Adopt an ecosystem and river basin approach to achieve full scale sustainable
water resource management;
3. Ensure integration of sanitation;
4. Evaluate the allocation of water to agricultural production and put in place
incentives to improve water use efficiency; and
5. Incorporate environmental impact assessment and social economic gender cultural
impact assessment as standard policy and practice.
On the financing gap?.. all governments must significantly increase their political and
financial commitment to the sector taking a poverty eradication and rights-based
approach.
Mobilising resources for long-term investment in the sector will require actions at all
levels, but investments must always respect the needs and desires of local users. Don?t
make them pay for a service they can?t afford or need.
Developed country governments should commit during 2005 to reverse declining levels
of ODA to the sector and focus on countries most in need, particularly sub Saharan
Africa. They should also agree on a concrete timetable to implement the Monterrey
consensus and coordinate their multilateral and bilateral programmes working on the
same target group, and/or region.
We strongly support the initiative of the UK government as presidency of the G8 to
cancel all debts of poor countries at the 2005 G8 summit and to use debt swaps through
endowment funds to finance the MDGs, particularly MDG 7.
Governments should prioritise the needs of the poorest in national budgets, set up tariff
structures for water use, including rising block tariffs for high consumers of water, but
without preventing poor people?s access to affordable water and sanitation. ?In kind?
contribution by communities and NGOs is already widely in practice, and now must be
matched by governments.
Private sector participation is not in itself the solution to the financial gap and must never
be imposed as a condition of grants or loans. Water is a public good, therefore regulation
of and control over water must always remain with the public sector. Water must never
be traded as a commodity.
Decentralization is an important principle for water management, but must include the
decentralization of fiscal powers to local authorities.
The goals of CSD13 can only be delivered by governance structures that allow local
communities and marginalized people to participate as equal partners with women,
farmers, trade unions, business, municipalities, in a multi-stakeholder framework where
different interests and responsibilities are acknowledged from the outset.
We need to strengthen institutional capacities that can result in changing behaviour,
optimal use of traditional knowledge and technologies from the local level, that promote
self reliance. Major groups have the capabilities to bring this about.
Monitoring and reporting should always distinguish between impacts according to
gender, ethnicity and cultures.
Regarding human settlements, we must emphasize that MDG Target 11 of reducing the
number of slum dwellers by 100 million is overshadowed by the fact that the number of
slum dwellers will actually increase by five times that number over the same period. The
CSD process should address the root causes of rural/urban migration as well as the
destruction of human habitat caused by military operations, political violence, forced
evictions and related criminal acts.
Sanitation and hygiene promotion is lagging behind and a true commitment is required by
governments such as is happening in Senegal and Bangladesh. There are many good
examples to be adopted including city wide sanitation strategies, eco sanitation, social
marketing of hygiene practices. This is an area that requires a cultural and gender
sensitive approach: coordination between local authorities NGOs and community groups.
Mr. Chairman, we are committed to bringing all this about. It would be an utter shame if
something so ?utterly affordable? is left unfulfilled in our lifetimes.
