World’s poorest countries face acute water crisis: WHO report
The world’s poorest countries are still lack of clean drinking water and sanitation, says the latest report by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The report released on August 28 paints a grim picture of underfunding in the water sector.
The new report comes at a time when international water sector meets in Stockholm, Sweden, for its annual conference during the World Water week which ends on Friday.
LACK OF FUNDS
“Weak government systems and lack of human resources and funds are jeopardising the delivery of water and sanitation services in the world’s poorest countries – and undermining efforts to ensure health for all,” reads the report.
The water and sanitation crisis in Kenya remains critical fuelled by the increasing population estimated at more than 45million.
At least 40 per cent of Kenyans still rely on unimproved water sources such as shallow wells, ponds, and polluted rivers while 60 per cent of Kenyans use poor sanitation solutions.
These challenges are evident in the rural areas and the urban slums which are increasing daily due to poverty in the new settlements sprucing up in urban centres.
Interestingly water is a devolved function and with advent of devolution in 2013, nearly all the 47 counties are gripped with an acute water shortage.
This has seen most of the water providers ration the commodity to ensure equitable distribution.
Lack of funding, mega corruption in dams scandal such as Aror, Kimwarer and Itare dams have seen the government slow down its efforts to distribute the commodity to millions of Kenyans.
CORRUPTION
Records available at the Ministry of Water indicates that only 9 out of the 55 public water service providers in the country give uninterrupted water supply.
The increasing shortage has left millions thirsty and forced them to find alternative ways of meeting their needs.
“To many people, lack access to reliable and safe drinking-water, toilets and hand washing facilities are putting them at risk of deadly infections and threatening progress in in public health,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General in his latest global water status report released on August 28 in Stockholm.
“Water and sanitation systems don’t just improve health and save lives, they are critical part of building more stable, secure and prosperous societies. We call on all countries that lack essential water and sanitation infrastructure to allocate funds and human resources to build and maintain it,” added Dr Tedros.
Kenya has a vision of achieving 100 per cent coverage of safe water supply and 100 per cent access to basic sanitation services by 2030.
FINANCING GAP
To achieve these targets, Kenya will require Sh1.3 trillion annually for water supply, Sh500 billion for sewerage, Sh60.1 billion for basic sanitation annually, and Sh6 billion for basic hygiene.
The financing gap is estimated as Sh730 billion for water and Sh450 billion for sewerage.
The government budget available for water supply covers around 44 per cent of the required investment cost, however the government budget available for sewerage is about 7 per cent.
In the Sh3.2 trillion budget for 2019- 2020 the Ministry of Water was allocated Sh82.3 billion for both recurrent and development expenditure.
The UN-Water Global Assessment and Analysis of Sanitation and Drinking- Water 2019 known as the GLASS report, surveyed 115 countries and territories, representing 4.5billion people.
The report showed that, in an overwhelming majority of the countries, the implementation of water, sanitation and hygiene policies and plans is constrained by inadequate human and financial resources.
DRINKING WATER
At least 19 countries and one territory reported a funding gap of more than 60 per cent between identified needs and available funding.
About half of the countries surveyed have now set drinking-water targets that aim for universal coverage at levels higher than basic services by 2030, by addressing water quality and increasing access to water on premises.
Most of the affected countries have a massive challenge on open defecation which has a direct impact on public and environmental health.
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