Baroness Stowell of Beeston
Main Page: Baroness Stowell of Beeston (Conservative - Life peer)International Development: Sanitation and Water
Baroness Stowell of Beeston Excerpts
Baroness Stowell of Beeston
My Lords, I join other noble Lords in congratulating the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Bath and Wells on securing this debate during the week when we are commemorating World Water Day. His contribution and indeed those of all noble Lords participating this evening demonstrate our shared concern for an important issue that is central to the health and well-being of poor people in developing countries, particularly young children.
Several noble Lords have made reference to various statistics and facts to underpin the points that they have made. I will repeat some of them because they are worthy of repetition. The human and economic impact of inadequate access to water and sanitation is devastating. Some 4,000 children die every day from diarrhoeal diseases. That is an astonishing figure. On average, women in rural Africa spend one-quarter of their day fetching water, with girls sometimes being kept out of school by this onerous task. We have heard several references to the impact of the lack of safe water, particularly sanitation, on women and young girls. My noble friend Lady Jenkin was particularly compelling in her illustration of the risks put in front of young girls who do not have the benefit of sanitation.
The economic costs of inadequate access to water and sanitation are high. We estimate it is between 1 per cent and 9 per cent of countries’ gross domestic product. Other noble Lords have made interesting points in the context of the economic data. My noble friend Lord Chidgey was most interesting when he drew a comparison in India to the proliferation of mobile phones and the contrast with investment in safe water. Likewise, the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, drew a stark contrast between the loss of labour hours in sub-Saharan Africa equating to a full year’s work by the French workforce. That was quite astonishing.
As many noble Lords have said, the millennium development goal on water has been met, and this is an extraordinary achievement, which is proof that well spent aid can make a real difference to the lives of the world’s poorest people. However, we have also heard that there are disparities in achieving that goal. Some countries are a long way off meeting it. If I may respond to a question asked by the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, about the measure used in meeting that goal, it is worth saying that the Joint Monitoring Programme measures use of improved water sources and adequate sanitation. So if facilities are not functioning properly, they will not be counted as providing access.
As we have heard, it remains the case that 783 million people are without access to clean water and an astonishing 2.5 billion people are without access to basic sanitation. This was a point made by the right reverend Prelate and many others. Clearly it is a long way from being met and the fact that we have a long way to go is reason enough for this to be an important issue that needs to be addressed. If this were not enough, climate change will make managing scarce water resources harder. The evidence is there as to why improving access to water and sanitation remains a priority for this and previous UK Governments. I pay tribute to the previous Government for their achievements, efforts and commitment in this area. Since coming to power, this coalition Government have set new, specific targets for our 14 bilateral aid programmes. This builds on the work of the previous Government. By 2015, we will ensure that: 15 million more people will have access to clean drinking water; 25 million more people will have access to improved sanitation facilities; and 15 million more people will have been taught about the importance of good hygiene.
However, it is not only in bilateral aid that we invest money to improve access to safe water and sanitation. We also support sustainable water and sanitation services for over 1 million poor people using the local private sector in 12 countries including Bangladesh, Kenya, Mozambique and Rwanda. These programmes support local entrepreneurs to develop and market low-cost latrines, or to construct and manage local piped water networks for the urban poor, another group of people that we have heard a lot about this evening. We provide support too, to civil society and some of our excellent British non-governmental organisations, including WaterAid, Tear Fund, Oxfam, and lesser-known organisations such as Practical Action, which my noble friend Lord Gardiner referred to. Each of these has proven their ability to reach the poor in large numbers. WaterAid’s work in Malawi is an example of what can be done. It has revived traditional approaches to composting latrines and introduced social marketing, with over 3,000 families benefiting as a result.
My noble friend Lord Chidgey asked what we were doing to build local capacity and ownership. He made the point that it is critically important, as well as providing finance to build infrastructure. In response, I can say that we work through national Governments wherever possible to develop capacity and build ownership. Our programmes combine technical assistance and infrastructure construction. That goes some way to answering one of the points made by the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, about making sure that this aid is sustainable and does not just address an immediate problem but can go on supporting a nation into the future.
The noble Lord, Lord Cameron, asked a very specific question about whether the UK supports the UN convention on transboundary water management. While the UK does not in any way object to the convention and sees it as potentially developmental, we do not currently see supporting it as a priority. However, I hope the noble Lord will be pleased to know that we support several major transboundary water projects, including the Nile Basin Initiative and the South Asia Water Initiative.
Since I am talking about other projects, this is probably the right point to respond to a question that the noble Lord, Lord Judd, asked about Gaza and what the Government are doing to help the situation, which remains very difficult in that part of the world. We continue to call for the full implementation of the relaxation of access restrictions for Gaza, which Israel announced in June 2010, with robust monitoring for the entry of essential items on the dual-use list to allow for rehabilitation of the water network.
My noble friend Lord Roberts of Llandudno referred to 14,000 water purification units that were used some years ago. I do not have any specific information on data of that kind but NGOs, rather than the Government, would normally be the lead providers of water purification. While my noble friend is right to say that during the Kosovo crisis, NATO forces provided reverse osmosis equipment for local water purification use, at this time we would look to the NGOs to take the lead on this.
I say to my noble friend Lady Jenkin that we were not aware of the moringa tree but I will make sure that it is brought to the attention of my colleagues.
The Government are doing a great deal to improve access to water and sanitation. However, it is essential that we evaluate the effectiveness of our efforts and question whether more can and should be done—a specific point made by the right reverend Prelate. To that end and as part of our commitment to increasing accountability to all UK taxpayers, who have a right to know that we are achieving results from spending their money, we have recently conducted a full review of the UK Government’s portfolio of work in water, sanitation and hygiene promotion. We will publish the details of the review later this week to coincide with World Water Day, but I can inform your Lordships tonight that the review shows that our portfolio of programmes provides good value for money and is delivering positive results. Importantly, the review shows that our programmes are reaching the people who need them most. Last year, three-quarters of the money we spent through our country programmes was spent on basic systems such as rural water supply schemes, hand pumps and latrines, which are most likely to reach the poorest. This is a higher proportion than that achieved by almost any other donor. We are doing this in the countries with the greatest need. It goes without saying that the detailed evidence from the review will inform the Secretary of State and my other ministerial colleagues when they consider whether and how the UK Government could do more.
The right reverend Prelate made a specific point on this and asked whether we should increase our investment in water and sanitation. The UK Government are currently considering how we can scale up our results in water and sanitation on the basis of the evidence presented in the portfolio review. Any scaled-up finance can be only part of the answer. The latest Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water report shows that many countries are struggling to spend the allocated funding that they already receive. Strengthening government systems is also important. This is not just about more money going in but about making sure that the Governments in receipt of that money are in a position to use it.
As to the points made by other noble Lords, it is worth saying that although we have talked specifically about water and sanitation, through our commitment to projects under the headings of education, health or assisting other Governments, we do a lot to make an impact on the effects of lack of water and sanitation, and they have been referred to. The noble Lord, Lord Judd, referred to what we were doing in Bihar, and my noble friend Lord Ahmad specifically asked about the disease trachoma. Projects in all such areas are being tackled, but through other programmes rather than in the safe water programme.
I am running out of time, but I conclude by saying that just as importantly as reviewing our own investments the Secretary of State will share the evidence from our portfolio review with other donor countries and Finance Ministers from developing countries when he attends the Sanitation and Water for All high-level meeting in Washington next month. As noble Lords will know, the UK and Dutch Governments were behind the Sanitation and Water for All initiative, and again I pay tribute to the previous Government because this initiative was started during their time in power. Through it, DfID has been seeking to secure better targeting of aid to the sanitation and water sectors as well as improved transparency and accountability from other donors and national Governments. The meeting next month will assess progress against past commitments and we expect that new commitments will be made. However, we do not want just new commitments to do more. If we are to ensure an equitable spread of access to safe water and to make much better progress in improving sanitation, we need better targeting of aid.
To conclude, it is an injustice that the lack of something as basic as clean water and sanitation should adversely affect the lives of millions. This Government remain committed to addressing this injustice that has the potential to undermine the achievement of a whole range of millennium development goals. To that end, we will make sure that what we do achieves the greatest impact, that we keep learning and refining our aid programmes, and that we share our knowledge and evidence with our partners, whereby together we can all do more.
Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead
My Lords, perhaps I may request that the Minister responds in writing to the points I raised in my presentation.
Baroness Stowell of Beeston
Of course—my apologies for not making it clear to the noble Baroness that I will follow up in writing. I regret that time was not available for me to respond orally this evening.