New Delhi, Jan 24, 2007 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Strong government leadership and healthy stakeholder participation are needed to ensure progress and improved governance in the water sector, an ADB Vice-President told the final day of the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit today.
"Perhaps the most serious challenge facing us all today is that of sustainable water use," said Khempheng Pholsena, Vice-President in charge of ADB's financial and administrative operations.
"When people speak about a water crisis, it is in most cases a crisis of water governance. The challenge of improving governance is equally urgent in the delivery of water services as it is in the management of water as a resource."
She pointed out that Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) offers a comprehensive approach to improving planning, conservation, development, and management of water, forest, land and aquatic resources within a river basin context.
"It [IWRM] aims to maximize economic benefits and social welfare from water in an equitable manner, without compromising the sustainability of vital environmental systems," she said.
She said such integrated management of water resources is largely a public sector responsibility, requiring strong government initiative and leadership, and healthy stakeholder participation.
"The delivery of water services, on the other hand, is best done at the local level by autonomous and accountable service providers - whether public, private, or both in partnership," she said. "It should be based on cost recovery principles so that the service will be sustainable. Good demand management and reduction of non-revenue water are key."
The Vice-President was speaking at a session at the summit on "Water: The Need for Integrated Water Resource Management Systems."
Ms. Pholsena said the region has seen some leading models both for IWRM and better water services, including reforms at the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority under the leadership of Ek Son Chan, its Managing Director; the clean up of Suzhou Creek by the municipal government and people of Shanghai, and Indonesia's efforts at implementing IWRM in five river basins.
Under ADB's Water Financing Program 2006-2010, ADB plans to introduce IWRM in 25 river basins across Asia and Pacific, including five in South and Southwest Asia, and two in Central Asia.
The program will double ADB's investments in the water sector over the five-year period, providing safe drinking water and improved sanitation for about 200 million people, better irrigation and drainage for about 40 million people, and reduced flood risk for about 100 million.
ADB promotes packaged investments that include support for reforms and capacity development, along with financing of infrastructure, operation and maintenance.
"As we work with developing Asia to improve the enabling environment for water investments and results, it is critical to develop more public-private partnership solutions to bring better and lasting results in the water sector," she said.
Over the past two years, ADB has introduced new financing mechanism and approaches to meet Asia's changing needs, including multitranche and local currency financing, increased flexibility in cost sharing arrangements, subsovereign lending as well as credit enhancement and risk mitigation instruments.
More than 500 participants from governments, development agencies, and the private sector have been attending the annual summit in Delhi, which focused on sharing experiences and promoting workable solutions to the region's natural resource problems. A special theme this year was assessing progress on meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals, focusing on exploring the natural resource dimensions of sustainable development.
Organizer of the summit, which opened on Monday, is the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), where ADB set up a knowledge hub on clean energy last June.
Contact
Graham Dwyer
Email: gdwyer@adb.org
Tel:+632 632 5253; Mobile: +63 920 938-6487
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