“Amidst the push for more exposure, more money from individuals, foundations, corporations and governments, and for more coordinated efforts to eradicate water and sanitation poverty worldwide”, there is also another sound, writes Water for People CEO Ned Breslin. “That is the disquieting voice of women and girls from Africa, Asia and Latin America grumbling in frustration that their lives have not been transformed by previous investments in improved water supplies and sanitation, and the simple request to “get it right”. But the images that dominate the sector—pictures of children happily gulping water from a new tap or the counter-image of women collecting water from dirty puddles—do not tell the whole story. The real image should be the one that plays itself out every day all over the world of the woman walking slowly past a broken handpump, bucket at her side or on her head, on her way to (or from) that scoop hole or dirty puddle that she once hoped would never again be part of her life. As a woman in Salima, Malawi sadly commented, “The broken handpump is a constant reminder of our inability to escape from poverty”.
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“Africa, Asia and Latin America have become wastelands for broken water and sanitation infrastructure. Go to schools throughout developing countries and you will often find a broken handpump around the corner, or a disused latrine that filled years ago. Sector agencies intuitively know this but the general public is shielded from these hard truths as perceptions of failure could threaten “the cause” of reaching the unserved. Poor people do not benefit from this disingenuity.”
“The sector would actually have a better case to make for more finances if it was able to speak of lasting success and transformative change in the field. Instead, the sector continues to focus on the number of people who remain un-served as justification to throw more money at the problem.”
“Water and sanitation sector agencies need to improve their work in the field or the goodwill that the sector currently enjoys will erode. New philanthropic giving strategies could play a significant role in eliminating water and sanitation poverty by basing themselves on a robust set of sustainability metrics. Success will require less single-minded focus on the absolute number of people without access to water and sanitation facilities and more focus on the serious questions around long-term impact and sustainability. So that years after the cameras have left, the donor reports have been filed, and the press release circulated, the community is not forgotten. A new partnership between philanthropists and development agencies would focus less on how much money the sector supposedly needs to solve global water challenges and more on how creative philanthropic giving can be used as leverage to instill financial responsibilities for improved water supply and sanitation on communities and governments in developing countries. A new culture of accountability and transparency that transcends the nonsense that currently masquerades as reporting in the sector must emerge if poor people worldwide are to truly emerge from the drudgery of water collection. In the final analysis, sector agencies need to be pushed considerably harder so that African, Asian and Latin American women never need to walk past that broken handpump, rightly grumbling, on their way to collect unsafe water. This can be done in creative and constructive ways through new partnerships between philanthropists and non-profits. Some suggestions for consideration and debate are offered in the following section.”
Read the full blog post in Rising Tide, 02 Feb 2020 or Download the PDF with footnote references
