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RIO+20 FEATURE: SEVEN ISSUES, SEVEN EXPERTS – WATER AND SANITATION
New York, Jun 20 2012 3:10PM
World leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other groups have come together in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to take part in the UN Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20).

In our <em>Seven Issues, Seven Experts</em> series, UN officials tell us more about the key issues being discussed at the conference and how we can contribute to make our planet more sustainable. </p>

In the sixth installment, the UN News Centre spoke with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Chief of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, Sanjay Wijesekera, about the role of water and sanitation and how to ensure sustainable universal access.</p>


<strong>UN News Centre:</strong> How does water and sanitation fit into sustainable development? </p>

<div id="EmbedPhotoRight" style="width:210px;"><"/News/dh/photos/large/2012/March/03-16-2012-undp.jpg" class="lightbox" title="A young boy drinks fresh water from a well in a village in northern Laos. Photo: UNDP/A. Rogers" rel="gallery-default"><img class="Embed" src="/News/dh/photos/2012/March/03-16-2012-undp.jpg" style="width:200px; height:133px;">
<p class="phtocaption2">A young boy drinks fresh water from a well in a village in northern Laos. Photo: UNDP/A. Rogers</p>
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<strong>Sanjay Wijesekera:</strong> For UNICEF, the issue of climate change and how it impacts on the poorest children is important. Important progress have been achieved in the last 20 years, under-five mortality has come down, but not enough.</p>

The issue of the impact of climate change has the potential to undermine a lot of the progress that has been made. The impact of climate change is largely transmitted through water. This often means either too much water or too little water with huge impact on human development.</p>

Many commitments have been made in past conferences, like Rio 1992 and Johannesburg [the Johannesburg Summit 2002 – the World Summit on Sustainable Development], and Rio+20 presents a unique opportunity to boost commitments from governments to implement these commitments and to hold everyone accountable.</p>

UNICEF's contribution to the outcome document draws attention to the important disparities in geographic, wealth and gender boundaries in terms of access to safe water and sanitation. The key question is what will do to ensure that the poorest people gain access, and how does a changing environment and climate result in programmatic changes from our side? We are engaging strongly with our partners, such as UN Water, to address it.</p>

<strong>UN News Centre:</strong> What can governments do to ensure access to water and sanitation to their populations? </p>

<strong>Sanjay Wijesekera:</strong> UNICEF is engaged at global and country level to support governments to be able to achieve better results. There are four areas for action.</p>

<div id="EmbedPhotoLeft" style="width:210px;"><"/News/dh/photos/large/2011/December/30-12-2011drc.jpg" class="lightbox" title="Women carry jerry cans of water at the Plage du Peuple, North Kivu, eastern DR Congo. Photo: IRIN/T. Ridley" rel="gallery-default"><img class="Embed" src="/News/dh/photos/2011/December/30-12-2011drc.jpg" style="width:200px; height:133px;">
<p class="phtocaption2">Women carry jerry cans of water at the Plage du Peuple, North Kivu, eastern DR Congo. Photo: IRIN/T. Ridley</p>
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First, we must recognise the fundamental importance of water and sanitation to human development, to health, to nutritional status, to education, and, particularly for girls, as well as wider economic development. Water and sanitation is a determinant of much wider human and economic development outcomes – if and when this is recognised, it helps governments focus its policies and resource allocation accordingly.</p>

The second issue, both at a global level as well as within countries, is that there is a misallocation of resources based on where they are needed most. We have done extensive research on where aid money goes and it doesn't go to the places and the people who need it most. This misalignment must be addressed. That is also reflected in countries' own allocations, where the poorest and most marginalised people are being left out. We need better information on where the needs are and allocate resources accordingly.</p>

The third area is about models that deliver results at scale. UNICEF works with governments to help them develop models that actually work at scale and not the small pilot projects. We need to deliver services to millions of people effectively and to know that it's having an impact.</p>

The fourth element is about monitoring results. We need to monitor not only the results but also who is benefitting. We need to measure the impacts on the poorest people. We need to ensure that our programmes are making an impact and, if not, we need to learn in order to improve them.</p>

<strong>UN News Centre:</strong> Is there a specific goal for Rio+20 regarding water and sanitation?</p>

<div id="EmbedPhotoRight" style="width:210px;"><"/News/dh/photos/large/2012/March/03-06-2012watersanitation.jpg" class="lightbox" title="The world has met the MDG target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water. Photo: UNICEF-WHO" rel="gallery-default"><img class="Embed" src="/News/dh/photos/2012/March/03-06-2012watersanitation.jpg" style="width:200px; height:133px;">
<p class="phtocaption2">The world has met the MDG target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water. Photo: UNICEF-WHO</p>
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<strong>Sanjay Wijesekera:</strong> In March, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) released a monitoring report against the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target on water and sanitation. The report shows that substantial progress has been made and, indeed, on drinking water, we have met the MDG target. Nevertheless, this showed that lots of people are being left behind, certain regions of the world, certain countries, certain groups of people. Also, the target itself was to halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, which in itself makes it clear that there is another half who have not yet benefitted. In addition to that, there is the whole area of sanitation which is fundamental for human dignity but also for achieving other targets, such as health and nutrition, and sanitation is still off track.</p>

What we would expect and like from Rio is renewed and revitalised commitments. The issue isn't about not knowing what to do. It is about continuing to make sure we don't drop the ball, as it's far too important. UNICEF is working with WHO to develop and get broad agreement on the next generation of targets beyond 2015. The key principles emerging are the need to move to universal access – so far the targets have sought to reduce the numbers – and we now need universal access building on human rights.</p>


<strong>UN News Centre:</strong> Can you give an example of a project that is succeeding in ensuring access to water and sanitation to an area that previously lacked these services? </p>

<strong>Sanjay Wijesekera:</strong> UNICEF works in over a 100 countries with people on the ground, so there are a lot of examples to draw on. Last year, we were able to help seven million people gain access to water and 10 million people access to sanitation as a result of our assistance, and that's not including what we do in emergencies, where UNICEF leads the UN water and sanitation cluster.</p>

<div id="EmbedPhotoLeft" style="width:210px;"><"/News/dh/photos/large/2011/October/03-
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