Thematic Discussion: Water

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I know time is short. One observation and perhaps a few suggestions on next steps: First the observation. Over the past day and a half, and in particular the past hour, one theme has come through very clearly – when national governments commit themselves to good governance, economic growth and meeting the needs of the people, progress can be made. Countries that prioritize water and sanitation issues in national development plans and strategies, and provide an enabling environment – which includes peace and security, policy, regulatory, and financial reform – are getting support and are getting on track. This is encouraging and I hope sends a clear message to all of us in this room – there is no substitute for national level commitment and leadership. Maybe this is not a silver bullet but it is perhaps as close as we may come to one.

A few words looking forward to the review session in 2012: We urge the CSD Bureau to consider a more country-focused approach to the review session. The statement we just heard form Uganda is good example of what we might do. Countries could report on three areas: access to drinking water and sanitation; water resources management; and water productivity. As indicators of progress, countries could use many of the suggestions we have heard here, such as the percentage of cost recovery, number of trained professionals, level of government support, funding from public and private sources. Each country could identify one or two priority challenges; one or two key impediments; and one or two areas were outside support would be most meaningful. This would help us donors, as Minister Itoua suggested, coordinate better at the country level. Countries could also comment on how things that we do here do or do not help on the ground. For example, how can we make the sharing of best practices and lessons learned meaningful for practitioners on the ground? How can we expand partnerships? How do we improve capacity building? We have done a good job identifying what we need to do, but perhaps we need to do a better job identifying how we do it.

We are encouraged by the growing level of political commitment on leadership to water and sanitation. We need to see more. We also need to show the same commitment and leadership to making CSD work. Thank you.