Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements

Welcome Address by Anna Tibaijuka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Executive Director of UN-Habitat

Hon. Maria Mutagamba, Minister for Water and Environment, Government of Uganda, Hon. Anna Teresa Aranda Orozco, Minister for Social Development, Mexico, Hon. Kumari Selja, Minister of State for Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation, Government of India, Mr. Andre Juneau, Deputy Head, Infrastructure and Communities, Government, of Canada, Dr. Arcot Ramachandran, the first Executive Director, UNCHS and presently the Chairman of The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi, India, Ms. Margaret Catley-Carlson, Chairperson, Global Water Partnership and the Session Moderator.

Distinguished Panelists on the Dias

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is indeed a great honour and privilege to welcome you to this Trialogue Session on Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements organized by UN-HABITAT. Thirty years ago the United Nations had organized first conference on Human Settlements in this beautiful city of Vancouver in 1976, which led to the founding of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat)

HABITAT - I concluded on 11 June 1976 and adopted the Vancouver Declaration of Human Settlements which highlighted the need for comprehensive approaches to shelter, infrastructure and services. The 1976 Vancouver Plan of Action was very far sighted and underscored the need for adopting programmes to provide water for urban and rural areas and reduce inequalities in service and access to water, as well as over consumption and wastage of water supply. Much has been done since then to place sustainable human settlements on the international agenda.

I am indeed very happy that Dr. Arcot Ramachandran, the first Executive Director of UN-HABITAT who led and built this UN institution for nearly a decade and a half is present amidst us to share his vision and experiences.

I also welcome Honourable Maria Mutagamba, who has been providing political leadership as a Minister in-charge for Water not only in Uganda but also as a Chairperson of AMCOW. She is also the Chairperson of the Steering Committee of Ministers for the UN-HABITAT's Lake Victoria Initiative on Water and Sanitation in the three countries.

I am also delighted that Minister Ana Aranda from Mexico, who played a major role in the recently concluded 4th World Water Forum in her country, is also present among us.

I welcome Kumari Selja, Honourable Minister from India whose dynamic Government is soon going to host a regional UN-HABITAT conference of Housing Ministers of the Asia and the Pacific in New Delhi, India.

Mr. Andre Juneau's presence indicates the importance which the Government of Canada has been attaching to the various water, sanitation and human settlements related initiatives by UN-HABITAT. I would particularly like to thank the Govt. of Canada for its major support in our Water and Sanitation Trust Fund since its inception. Other large supporters of the Trust Fund are Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden, and I am particularly delighted that Ms. Anne Stenhammer, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway can be here with us today.

Ms. Margaret Catley-Carlson, the moderator of today's session, has always supported UN-HABITAT's initiatives on water and sanitation in Africa and other regions. Her evaluation of the first phase of the programme in Africa had resulted in its expansion not only in Africa but also in Asia which ultimately resulted in a fruitful collaboration with the Asian Development Bank.

The presence and involvement of many other eminent panelists in this Session indicates that so many of you are concerned with this important subject of Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements. I would like to welcome you all.

It is human settlements that provide the context for providing water and sanitation. It is at this level where actions have to be coordinated and managed. It is at this level that policy initiatives become an operational reality and an eminently politically affair. It is here that local actions must and can deliver global goals.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It was in response to increasing global challenges, world leaders met at a special Millennium Summit at the United Nations in September 2000 to establish a series of goals for humanity in the twenty first century, based on the key policy documents from the series of major United Nations conferences held during the previous decade, including Agenda 21 and Habitat Agenda. At the General Assembly Session following this Millennium Declaration, a road map was established with a set of eight specific global goals, i.e. the Millennium Development Goals and 18 targets.

The MDG agenda was developed in an unprecedented consultative process involving practically all stakeholders including governments, civil society, women and youth groups and the private sector. The Millennium Development Goals have, therefore, become a framework for international development cooperation, or a common rallying point in our struggle to achieve the primary objectives of the United Nations, namely enduring peace and sustainable prosperity for all.

While poverty is the underlying theme of all Millennium Development Goals, water and sanitation provide an entry point for action to achieve each of these goals. It was for this realization that in August 2002 the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation underscored water, sanitation and shelter among the priority sectors. As a follow up on the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, the Commission on Sustainable Development adopted water, sanitation and human settlements as an integral cluster for operationalising a holistic approach during the years 2004 - 2005.

The issues relating to water, sanitation and human settlements need to be addressed in an integrated manner, taking into account economic, social and environmental aspects, related sectoral policies as well as national, sub-regional and regional specificities, circumstances and legal frameworks. We are well aware, that the water and sanitation targets are to halve the proportion of people who lack access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015, and that the target for slum-dwellers is to improve the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers by 2020.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are living in a world whose population has just passed the six billion mark. In 2001, 47 per cent of the world's population was located in urban areas. A total of 78 per cent of the World's population lives in settlements with populations below 500,000. With the given trends in urbanization and the existing status of human settlements, we have to design the strategies for pursuing the water and sanitation targets which meet the needs of these human settlements. Our strategies for service delivery need to be differentiated to match the different types of human settlements. There is a need for new approaches which may include fast-track mechanisms, community / neighbourhood centered approaches for ensuring fast-delivery.

Millennium Development Goals - the Centrality of Water and Sanitation

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In a world where some 1.1 billion people lack access to safe water and 2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation, what could be a more direct attack on poverty (Goal 1) than to enable them to access these vital, life-sustaining services that could protect their health and improve their productivity?

In a world where 2 million children die, needlessly, every year, for the lack of water or for its poor quality, what could be a better starting point to reduce child mortality (Goal 4)?

In a world where millions of girl children are forced to trade education for collecting water, or drop out from schools for the lack of even minimal sanitation facilities, what could be a better way to promote universal primary education (Goal 2) or gender equality and empowering of women (Goal 3)?

And in a world where one billion people live in slums in overcrowded condition without access to basic services, what would be a concrete way to make significant improvements in their lives (Goal 7, target 11) other than access to water and sanitation?

Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements are, therefore, at the centre of our agenda. The global commitment that the Millennium Development Goals spur is laudable. These are important preconditions for action. But by themselves, the Goals will not change the lives of the people, more particularly, of the poor, unless we ground our intervention into the reality of location.

Human settlements provide a concrete context for this action. The Struggle for achieving the Millennium Development Goal for water will have to be waged in human settlements - in our cities, towns and villages, where water will be consumed and wastes generated. Here is where the actions have to be coordinated and managed. It is at this level that policy initiatives become an operational reality and an eminently political affair: conflicts have to be resolved and consensus found among competing interests and parties. The MDGs cannot be delivered in orbit but in a defined space.

We all know that a business-as-usual approach will not be enough. We need a fundamental change in our approach to reach the Millennium Development Goals - we need a strategy that is workable, realistic and will make a difference in the lives of the people in their habitats. We have to address many challenges which, inter alia, include the problem of urbanization of poverty, the challenge of improving the slums, localizing the MDGs and monitoring them regularly. There is also a need to promote pro-poor investments in the wake of declining per capita investment in water and sanitation in most developing country cities.

To meet the challenge of providing water and sanitation to the poor, UN-HABITAT has established a Water and Sanitation Trust Fund with the objective of creating an enabling environment for pro-poor investments in water and sanitation in developing country cities and support the implementation of MDGs. During the last three years the Trust Fund has supported cities and countries both in Africa and Asia which have demonstrated their commitment to promote investment in water and sanitation that are specifically targeted to the poorest of the poor living in slums and squatter settlements.

In addition, UN-HABITAT has established a new global slum upgrading facility with the objective to help developing countries mobilize domestic capital for their own slum and urban upgrading activities through various new processes. This facility, as you may be aware, was launched last year in Indonesia in October 2005.

I am very happy that this Trialogue session has been organized to discuss various issues in the pursuit of the Millennium Development Targets for water supply and sanitation and find solutions through new approaches for developing pro-poor governance frameworks, new strategic partnerships and introduce new delivery mechanisms and also facilitate pro-poor investments in the water and sanitation sector. On our part UN-HABITAT stands committed to make its best efforts to support national and local governments as well as the communities and other stakeholders in developing and operationalising strategies for achieving these goals.

I now hand over the floor back to Ms. Margaret Catley-Carlson, the Moderator of the session.