Water Supply
Global Water Supply and Sanitation Partnership : Scaling up financing outreach at World Water Week
By Joel Kolker
The latest news about the finance world usually involves stories of blockchain technology , acquisitions and mergers , and stock market fluctuations . But the world of finance is also central to the Sustainable Development Goals and particularly the objective of universal access in the water and sanitation sector . Financing , whether public or private , is essential to the development , maintenance and improvement of water supply and sanitation ( WSS ) systems .
That ’ s why scaling-up finance for water is crucial if we are to reach the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ) in the water sector . The SDGs call upon the world to achieve universal WSS access that is safe , affordable , and available to all by 2030 . In addition , the SDGs include targets for increasing efficiency of water use across all sectors , protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems , and improving water quality . And water is a fundamental prerequisite to the achievement of all 17 of the goals – water flows through and connects all the other SDGs .
However , many people still live in areas where WSS systems are inadequate or even unavailable . Although drinking water is essential to life , across the world today 2.1 billion people lack reliable access to safely managed drinking water services and 4.5 billion lack safely managed sanitation services . In Sub-Saharan Africa alone , 42 percent of people lack improved water sources within a 30-minute roundtrip .
The World Bank Group ’ s Global Water Supply and Sanitation Partnership ( GWSP ) understands that additional finance for water infrastructure is absolutely critical to achieve the SDGs . The WSS sector alone requires six times more financing than governments , the private sector , and donors are currently funding . The GWSP also operates on the understanding that improving WSS financing involves three components .
First , ensuring that public resources are planned , budgeted and allocated more efficiently . One effective way to achieve this is for governments to establish the policy , planning and governance frameworks that will improve the sector efficiency , transparency and creditworthiness to attract the commercial finance required to meet WSS goals . Second , improving service providers ’ performance and governance . Increasing both operational and capital efficiency allows service providers to deliver better services more effectively , thus freeing up resources to invest in improving or extending services . Third , ensuring that public funds are used to leverage commercial finance to the extent possible . This will require governments , through their line ministries and local governments , to take leadership in the design and implementation of an integrated and consistent approach to sector financing built around policies that encourage efficiency and mobilization of new sources of capital .
Bangladesh is just one country where the GWSP is delivering results , through its engagement on sanitation microfinance for rural households . Building on previous work by the Water and Sanitation Program ( WSP ), the GWSP recently provided $ 275,000 in technical assistance to the government to create demand for sanitation investment and influence behavioral change . The project also helped microfinance institutions develop loans to households and small construction companies to buy and install sanitation facilities , as well as mitigate lending risks . The technical assistance included training for the private sector to build quality , affordable models of hygienic latrines that lowincome households were most likely to purchase . Thanks to Bangladesh ’ s experience of rural microfinance , lessons learned here can be replicated elsewhere and are being incorporated into the design of a larger World Bankfunded project .
We are also learning lessons from and sharing knowledge with many other World Bank projects . For example , in Uruguay World Bank support has helped Obras Sanitarias del Estado ( OSE ) transform from an inefficient monopoly into an accountable , well-regarded public utility that provides potable water access to nearly 99 percent of Uruguayans , and sanitation access to over half that
22 Africa Water , Sanitation & Hygiene • August 2018