WASHINGTON — Hundreds of billions of
dollars investment are needed annually to help resolve water supply and
sanitation problems in the developing world, far exceeding the sums that donor
countries are capable of providing, a senior State Department official said
Wednesday.
Much of the resources needed will have to come from within the countries
themselves, said John Turner, a department environmental affairs expert,
testifying before the House International Relations Committee.
Turner and other witnesses provided grim testimony as to the depth of water
shortages in poorer countries.
Despite gains since 1990 in the provision of water and sanitation facilities,
"there are still 2.6 billion people without improved services -- over half
the developing world's population -- and 1.1 billion still using water from
unimproved sources," said Vanessa Tobin an environmental expert at UNICEF.
She said that even if the 2015 U.N. Millennium Development Goals relating to
water services are met, another decade of hard work will be required to achieve
global coverage.
Committee chairman Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican, indicated that he
supports legislation proposed by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, that
would make safe water and adequate sanitation facilities a strategic part of the
U.S. foreign assistance program.
He called the global water and sanitation situation "shocking."
Hyde said the solution does not lie in increasing assistance alone.
"Attention needs to be paid to the way funds are distributed," he
said. "For example, data suggest that the countries most in need of access
to safe water and sanitation have received the least amount of donor
assistance."
Olav Kjorven, a senior official at the U.N. Development Program, testified that
an array of health issues on the list of Millennium Development Goals are linked
at water and sanitation.
"We ask ourselves can poverty and hunger be eradicated or maternal health
improved or child mortality reduced or gender inequalities addressed without
improved access to water and sanitation. The answer is 'No.' " he said.
"These goals cannot be met without water and sanitation."
Kjorven said he strongly endorses the Blumenauer legislation.
Source: Associated Press