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Background

The Human Settlements Group seeks to inform policy-makers, professionals and practitioners about the scale and nature of inadequate water supply and sanitation and the most effective strategies to improve the situation. The group has continually been interested in ensuring improved water, sanitation and drainage in low-income urban areas in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Women and children collecting water in an

informal settlement in Lusaka, Zambia

Over the years, developing countries, have been facing enormous backlogs in the provision of sanitation services, especially in urban poor communities, that have resulted partly from the use of inappropriate service approaches, coupled with limited financial resources and rapid urbanisation and population growth.

• Half the world's population live in urban areas and of which a third, almost 1 billion, are desperately poor and live in slums without access to adequate water and sanitation. 
  
• Although the majority of people without adequate sanitation services live in rural areas, the worst environmental conditions exist in the vast, urban informal settlements, due to the high population densities there.
  
• As many as 150 million urban residents representing up to 50 per cent of the African urban population do not have adequate water supplies, while 180 million, or roughly 60 per cent of people in urban areas lack adequate sanitation. 
  
• In Asia, 700 million people, constituting half the urban population, do not have adequate water, while 800 million people, of the urban population is without adequate sanitation. 
  
• Over 120 million urban dwellers in Latin America and the Caribbean, lack access to adequate water. At least 40 percent of the urban population in Latin America and the Caribbean are without adequate sanitation.
  
• An estimated 2.2 million people die from water and sanitation related diseases every year with the majority being children.

In most cases, the situation of the urban poor is exacerbated by the fact that their settlements are considered illegal; for this reason they lack access to decision-making mechanisms. Difficulties in achieving improved water and sanitation are further compounded by low investment in the sector.

The International Response

• Has been to look to internationally comparable indicators to monitor progress, international financial mechanisms to fund improvements, and internationally endorsed institution shifts (e.g. more private sector participation) to drive improvements.
  
• Insufficient attention has been given to indicators, financial mechanisms and institutions that are designed by and for localities.
  
• Meanwhile, there are many innovative and inspiring examples of locally driven initiatives that improve water and sanitation provision in deprived urban areas, including some that have reached considerable scale. The report Water and Sanitation in the World’s Cities documents many of these case studies (see publications section). 
  
• Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): The aims of the Millennium Goals to halve the number of people without adequate access to water and sanitation services by 2015 but the MDGs do not have a stronger focus on local institutions and processes. More information can be found at http://www.unicef.org/wes/mdgreport/.
  
• International Year of Sanitation: The United Nations declared 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation (IYS) to raise the profile of Sanitation in the international development arena. As a contribution to the International Year of Sanitation the Human Settlements Group will organise a side event at the World Water Week in Stockholm in August 2008. For more information about the International Year of Sanitation, see www.sanitationyear2008.org.

The Work of IIED in Water and Sanitation

Critical reviews of the potential role of the large private water companies in addressing the needs of the poorest urban dwellers, and of the potential role of water resource management.

Documenting locally-driven initiatives, many of which involve partnerships of one form or the other between community organizations and non-governmental organizations, local authorities and/or utilities.

Current Projects

Improving Urban Water and Sanitation provision Globally, Through Information and Action Driven Locally. The aim of the project is to enable the IIED partners in Angola, Argentina, Ghana, Pakistan and India to learn and share experiences directly from each other, and influence the efforts of international agencies to improve water and sanitation in deprived urban communities. The project is guided by the following themes:

• Working in collaboration
• Loans, subsidies and financing water and sanitation improvements
• Using information to drive local action and monitor improvements
• Going to scale

Project summary (PDF 44K)

Water and Sanitation publications and other useful links

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