CHAPTER 5: Infrastructure and Human Development
5.4 Water resources, development and management
Access to improved water sources is regarded as a critical requirement for human de-velopment everywhere in the world. This is often considered together with sanitation.
Population growth is normally accompanied by increased water demand for domestic, agricultural, and industrial use and the accompanying sanitation needs. This inevitably increases pressure on the limited water resources, thereby compromising their sustain-ability. Increasing access both to improved water sources and to related sanitation facilities requires considerable investment in basic infrastructure. Improved water-supply and sani-tation infrastructure are generally of the nature of public goods. Implicitly, investments in improved water supply and sanitation in developing countries are a function of fiscal space, public governance and the general policy space of the implementing economies.
34 SADC, 2009. Infrastructure Development Status Report, for Council and Summit, September 35 SADC, 2010. Infrastructure Development Status Report for Council and Summit. August
In 2005, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development constituted 72 policy ac-tions targeting the areas of water supply, integrated water-resource management and basic sanitation. Globally, the implementation of policy action in the fields of water supply and integrated water-resource management has advanced better than in the field of sanitation, especially wastewater treatment, which is extremely underdeveloped. The distribution of clean toilets has not yet reached the required level. In 2008, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs found a strong positive correlation between access to water supply and sanitation and the HDI: the higher the HDI, the better the access for the population to water and sanitation (UNDESA, 2008).
Water use in the SADC member States varies widely and a majority of the subregion’s 300 million people (approximately) lack access to basic safe water as well as appropriate sanitation, and they often also face food insecurity. Overall, more than half of the people of SSA lack access to safe water while more than 40 per cent lack adequate sanitation. This lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation largely explains the poverty situation in the subregion. The incapacitating effects of poverty, including lack of access to a safe water supply and sanitation and precarious food security of the people within southern Africa, most often leads to a speedy progression of positive HIV status into subsequent AIDS and mortality (SADC, 2005).
In response to this unyielding water and sanitation problem, SADC designed a number of corrective measures. SADC’s objectives of poverty reduction, food security, energy security and industrial development, as well as promotion of peace and cooperation among mem-ber States, all depend to some extent on the management of the water resources in the subregion. SADC has a Regional Water Policy which highlights the various opportunities for water management to achieve its states goals and the MDGs, among other recognised international and subregional targets. SADC member States adopted the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in 1998 as the fundamental approach to ensure that wa-ter substantially contributes to poverty reduction in a sustainable manner. This is expected to promote or facilitate human development in the subregion.
However, a seminar and consultative meeting convened in December 2008 by ECA noted a number of lags in terms of water and sanitation status in the subregion: Only 40 per cent of the 15 SADC countries are on track to meet the MDG target on water supply; 13 per cent of the SADC countries are on track to meet the MDG target on sanitation; 33 per cent of the SADC countries are not likely to meet any of the twin targets on improved water supply sources and safe sanitation (ECA, 2008). In explaining this, the national as-sessments by the Africa Development Bank identified a number of issues and challenges that constrain the provision of proper water supply and sanitation and the achievement of water and sanitation MDGs by the respective SADC member States. Although issues vary from one country to another, they generally include poor financial performance, inadequate institutional capacities, poor monitoring and reporting systems, lack of effec-tive sector plans and poor information sharing and sector learning (AfDB, 2009). This has subsequently led to more than 20 per cent of the population in most SADC member states using unsafe water, and more than 50 per cent not accessing improved sanitation
facilities36. In addition, poor access to water and sanitation services has led to an increase in mortality resulting from waterborne diseases, with diarrhoea ailments being the fourth leading cause of infant mortality in the year 2006 in SSA in general, at 17 per cent of total deaths (UNICEF, 2007).
Figure 5.3 below shows the variability of access to safe water sources for selected years in the SADC subregion. Four groups of countries can be separated by their performance in the figure below;
• Those that have more or less maintained / marginally improved on the already-high 1990 levels (above 80 per cent) of the population’s accessibility to safe water (Botswana, South Africa and Mauritius). Because of this, these countries recorded less than 10 per cent increases in this indicator. Of these Mauritius stands out to be the country that has done extremely well in maintaining accessibility for 99 per cent of the population from 1990 till 2010.
• There are also those countries which recorded a more than 20 per cent increase in the population’s accessibility to safe water from 1990 to 2010.
This group is the largest, comprising Malawi, Lesotho, Angola, Madagascar, Zambia, Namibia, Swaziland and Mozambique. Most impressive in this indicator was Malawi whose growth was in excess of 50 per cent, followed by Madagascar and Namibia (both in excess of 30 per cent) and the rest, spread between 20 and 30 per cent.
• There is another group comprising DRC and Zimbabwe that have not significantly improved on their 1990 level with growths of 0 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively. DRC had the lowest levels of population access to safe water in the subregion and all through the period of investigation it stagnating at 45 per cent access, while Zimbabwe stagnated at 79 per cent.
• The last group is composed of only Tanzania, which actually recorded a decrease in the proportion of its population having access to drinking water between 1990 and 2010 (a decrease of 4 per cent).
36 Southern African Development Community, Minimum Package Of Services for Orphans and Oth-er VulnOth-erable Children And Youth, SADC/OVC&Y/1/2011/5.
Figure 5.3: Proportion of Total Population with Access to Improved Water Source (%)37
No data available for Seychelles; * 1990 data missing Source: constructed from Country Data Tables (Annex 1)
Admittedly, there are no noticeable differences in the changes of access levels to safe wa-ter sources before and afwa-ter the adoption of IWRM for the countries considered, except for Swaziland. Another viewpoint may be that the adoption of the policy has helped to prevent the negative effects of increased demand pressure on the limited water resources caused by population growth, thus fostering sustainable human development.
The water sector plays an important role in the realisation of SADC subregional economic integration, which has the overall aim of alleviating poverty in the subregion. With the majority of the population in the subregion not having much access to good water sup-ply and basic sanitation, waterborne diseases such as cholera have become endemic to the subregion.38 Outbreaks of these preventable diseases hamper human development by reducing the number of healthy days on which people affected by the diseases can either work for a living or access education services. At the same time, increased access to basic education (especially adult literacy) can play an implicit part in sensitising people on good sanitation practices. MDG Target 7.c, to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population
37 These were the latest available data in the WDI at the time of preparing this report
38 SADC, 2010. The Report on Disaster Risk Reduction and Preparedness workshop in Gabo-rone, Botswana
without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, is a key target for rolling back poverty, inequality, hunger and illness.
Though operationalised by the adoption of IWRM under the RISDP, achieving the MDG target on drinking water and sanitation faces two major challenges: the rapid pace of urbanisation, which requires a major effort even to keep up the current coverage levels;
and the huge backlog of rural people without access to basic sanitation and safe drinking water. This underscores the need for intensive mobilisation of resources to reduce the vast coverage gap between urban and rural populations.
There is a strong current against progress in SSA. Over the period 1990-2004, the number of people without access to drinking water increased by 23 per cent and the number of people without sanitation increased by over 30 per cent. Investing in the provision of im-proved drinking water and sanitation should not only be viewed as a humanitarian action but as an economically sound action because of its great effect of reducing health costs and its direct relationship with some important frontiers for poverty alleviation, such as equity and economic growth (World Health Organization and UNICEF, 2006). Access to improved water and sanitation is closely related to health as an indicator of human development.
There are several basic services required to fulfil the need for good health and sanitation which are primarily the responsibility of health care and related sectors. These include immunization; micronutrient supplementation, therapeutic feeding and oral rehydration therapy for younger children; prevention, treatment, care, and support for malaria, HIV/
AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases; sexual and reproductive health care and provisions for adolescents and youth; and counselling and support for psychosocial disorders and problems (Ibid.).However, special attention should be given to orphans and other vulner-able children and youth, who often have no access to clean water supply and sanitation facilities. Lack of access to water and sanitation facilities leads to early drop-out from school for girls attend to family water needs and care for the ill (SADC, 2005).
The costs of high poor water supply and sanitation are innumerable. For instance, a pilot study conducted in 2010 by Egis Become International on behalf of SADC revealed that Zambia is losing $491 million or 6.84 per cent of GDP due to sickness, absenteeism, and low productivity associated with poor water-supply and sanitation. However, low access to improved water sources and better sanitation is still considered a social problem and is erroneously seen as a result, rather than a cause, of economic stagnation in Zambia and most SADC countries.39
Poverty in all its dimensions is a major development challenge in SADC subregion. Close to 70 per cent and 40 per cent of the population in the subregion live below the respec-tive international poverty lines of $2 and $1 per day. About 80 per cent of the population in some member States, such as Mozambique and Zambia, are estimated to be living in extreme poverty. Low access to safe drinking water, as stated in chapter 2, is one of the greatest areas of deprivation. Given the high levels of poverty, the need to balance sustain-39 SADC, Economic Accounting of Water Use, Zambia Pilot Report, 2010.
ability issues with the requirement to protect the basic needs of the poor and vulnerable emerges as another great challenge as poverty indicators are particularly acute among the vulnerable groups (SADC, 2008c).
Contrary to the picture presented by the level of access to improved water in SSA, it was evident from figure 5.3 that the SADC subregion recorded some improvements, albeit marginal. The higher levels of access to improved water supply recorded in the SADC subregion is against a background of unsustainable levels of poverty. It is not surprising that nearly half of the SADC member States’ indicators on the safe drinking water are below the subregional average. The most affected countries are Angola, Mozambique, DRC, Madagascar, Tanzania and Zambia. Generally, no significant relationship between performance with regard to improved water provision and national income was found.
Water resources in the SADC subregion are unevenly distributed across the subregion re-sulting in mismatched water availability and demand and subsequently spatial and tempo-rary scarcities and excesses. As a component of poverty, the safe drinking water indicator has been aggravated by climate variability, which often results in recurrent droughts, floods and other natural disasters in the sub‐region. For instance, one occurrence of drought in the SADC subregion is projected to threaten 14 million people with starvation. The sub-region is further characterised by huge differences in the level of development of water infrastructure. SADC has encountered a number of strategic challenges in the implemen-tation of the Regional Water Strategy. The challenges can be summarised into four broad categories: natural, geographic, structural and institutional. The largest category concerns the institutional capacities of member States to adapt subregional policies and implement them within the scope of their domestic policy frameworks.
5.5 Conclusions and recommendations
Below is a summary of chapter findings, from which the recommendations will be drawn
• The limited road networks throughout most of SADC countries imply lower trade and commerce facilitation, possible higher transaction costs in all forms of economic activity, less access to factor and output markets and lower factor (including labour) mobility. All these aspects can be expected to have constraining effects of economic development and human development, as the higher production costs being incurred are passed on to the final consumer.
• The low per capita energy consumption levels (which are worse in the rural areas) in the subregion have shown no particular signs of improvement over the years. Increased load shedding in the subregion as a result of energy-supply deficits has not only constrained productive economic activities in general, but have also reduced the quality of life of the people. Although there are currently four subregional projects in progress aimed at increasing
electricity generation through hydropower, more of such efforts are needed if the current energy deficits are to be addressed.
• Over the past two decades, improved and wide-ranging ICT services have become more accessible to the subregion, although the drawback to access is the extremely high cost of accessing them. Most investments in the ICT sector are due to FDI and have contributed to human development through creating employment and fiscal contributions in the form of taxes.
To a limited extent, further developments in ICT and the Internet have helped expand the range of internationally traded services, such as medical care, distance-learning, engineering, architecture, finance and freight and forwarding, among others. This is improving human development.
• The SADC subregion recorded marginal improvements in the levels of access to improved water supply, although nearly half of the SADC member States’
indicators were below the subregional average. Even though there were no noticeable improvements in access levels to safe water sources after SADC countries adopted the IWRM policy (except for in one country), this policy helped prevent the expected deterioration in this indicator as subregional populations grew.
Infrastructure development plays an important role in facilitating trade, growth and ul-timately human development in subregional integration schemes. These links are largely absent in the SADC subregion because of low levels of infrastructure development. Trade facilitation is stifled by: the limited quantity of essential infrastructure services (such as energy and ICTs) and/or the poor quality of essential infrastructure (such as transport infrastructure). These bottlenecks translate into higher costs of production, which are usu-ally passed on to the consumer and affect human development.