headline facts 

about the cost estimates

overview of cost estimates

flow of finance

key references

pdf format

The Millennium Development

Goals 

In September 2000, the United Nations Millennium Summit agreed a set of time-bound and measurable goals aimed at combating poverty, hunger, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women.

The seventh Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is to ensure environmental sustainability. Target 10 is to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

This Briefing Note reviews the different cost estimates that have been made for achieving the targets for water sanitation and analyses the underlying assumptions that are made.

WELL BRIEFING NOTE 9                                       Go Back

Will it cost the earth?

An overview of cost estimates for achieving the water and sanitation targets of the Millennium Development Goals

Compiled by: Andrew Cotton of WEDC, 2004

Source Material:  Catarina Fonseca, IRC and Rachel Cardone, ERM

Headline Facts

• The way in which funds for the sector are used is more important than estimates of absolute levels of funding to achieve global targets.

• There is no consistency between the different cost estimates for achieving the targets: the range is $7.5 - $70 billion annually.

• Globally the bulk of funding for water and sanitation comes from national domestic sources - representing 83% in 2000.

• There is a funding gap and financial resources are an issue if the targets are to be achieved.

• Greater commitment to poverty focus and sustainability - keeping systems running - is required otherwise those who currently have access to adequate levels of service will fall back to being unserved.

• Greater attention needs to be given to providing the poor with access to finance.  There exist financing tools that will help to achieve the MDGs but it is not clear that they will necessarily help to provide access for the poorest.

About the Cost Estimates

It's not straightforward ....

• There are currently several different estimates for the costs of implementing target 10; these are shown in the table in the Overview of Cost Estimates section. The estimates vary enormously due to inconsistencies in the data and in calculating access to services. It is often not clear what assumptions have been made and it comes as no surprise that the costs estimates vary widely. Comparing raw figures is not possible and may lead to erroneous conclusions. The table attempts to clarify the differences between the estimates, so that policymakers and advocates can choose an estimate that best “matches” their interests.

How many people to serve?

• Most estimates are based on projections from the WHO/UNICEF Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment Report (2000) whereby 1.6 billion people lacked access to water supply in 2000, and 2.2 billion lacked access to sanitation. WHO/UNICEF estimate that by 2015 an additional 1.6 billion people will need access to water supply, and 2.2 billion sanitation. Hence, the projected total number of people requiring access between 2000-2015 is 3.2 billion for water supply and 4.4 billion for sanitation.

With what services?

• Terms such as “access to safe” and “access to improved” are used and these mean different things to different people. Cost estimates are fundamentally dependent on the type of technology assumed to achieve the objective of “safe” or “improved”. This is often not specified and further complicates direct comparison of the estimates.

• Furthermore, an “improved” public standpost may provide only sporadic supply - it may not be able to provide sustainable access to meet demand. This Briefing Note assumes the following definitions (WHO/UNICEF):

• Lack of capacity is one of the major constraints; none of the estimates considers the cost of institutional and support services for sustainability including the development of capacity to put into practice strategies adapted to the needs of the poorest.

• Only a few of the estimates include calculations for the maintenance and rehabilitation of existing infrastructure.

Overview of Cost Estimates

See Table (Word document)

Flow of Finance

How much?

• Globally in 2000, 83% of funding for water and sanitation came from national sources: public sector (65%); domestic private sector (19%). The balance was from multi-lateral and bilateral donors (12%) and the international private sector (5%).

• This masks large variations between and within regions. Only 12% of total aid went to countries where less than 60% of the population has access to an improved water source.

• There is a funding gap. Overseas Development Assistance allocations to the water sector average US$ 3 billion annually, half of which is loans. This amounts to less than half the lowest MDG cost estimate.

Where to?

• Funding tends to go towards large projects with visible impact in a short time frame. Arguably, funding has not gone where it can have the greatest impact on human health and well being.

• Not to smaller-scale, low-cost technologies

• Not to sanitation, especially in rural areas - (sanitation investment makes up 20 percent of total investment in the water supply and sanitation sector)

• Not to rural areas, where such low-cost technologies are most applicable, and where coverage gaps are considerable.

Sub Saharan Africa

Targets for water and sanitation are both off-track in sub Saharan Africa. In 2002:

• Water: coverage was 58%, needs to rise to 75% by 2015

• Sanitation: coverage 36%, needed to have been 49% to be on track

 

• The financing mechanisms that are most likely to be available to the poorest include:

• User finance (via tariff revenues designed accordingly or in-kind contributions such as labour/local materials)

• Grants from development agencies including NGOs

• Micro-credit/micro-finance whether through private lenders or micro-finance NGOs

• The poor tend to live in marginalized peri-urban and rural areas and are often off-network; targeting is a major problem. Even if financing mechanisms and supporting frameworks are in place, they still may not be effective in reaching the poor. This will be the subject of a forthcoming WELL Briefing Note.

Key References

1. Cosgrove, W. and Rijsberman, F. 2000. World Water Vision: Making Water Everybody’s  Business. Earthscan Publications Ltd., London. http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/Vision/  cce1f838f03d073dc125688c0063870f.shtml  Pg.60

2. GWP. 2000. Towards water security: Framework for Action. Stockholm, Sweden: Global Water Partnership, http://www.gwpforum.org/gwp/library/sec3b.pdf  Pg. 75-76 and http://www.gwpforum.org/gwp/library/sec4.pdf   Pg. 104-106

3. Report of the World Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure. 2003. Financing Water for All http://www.gwpforum.org/gwp/library/FinPanRep.MainRep.pdf  Pg.2-3

4. Devarajan, Shantayanan, Margaret J. Miller and Eric V. Swanson. 2002. Development Goals: History,Prospects and Costs. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper. http://econ.worldbank.org/files/13269_wps2819.pdf  Pg. 29

5. Smets, Henri. 2003. The Cost of meeting the Johannesburg targets for drinking water: a review of various estimates and a discussion of the feasibility of burden sharing.French Water Academy. http://www.academie-eau.org/article.php3?id_article=159  Pg 28-29.

6. Evans, B. G. Hutton, L. Haller. 2004. Closing the Sanitation Gap – the Case for Better Public Funding of Sanitation and Hygiene. Paper prepared for the Roundtable on Sustainable Development, 9-10 March 2004, OECD, Paris. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/41/1/31508032.pdf  Pg.20.and Evaluation of the Costs and Benefits of Water and Sanitation Improvements at a Global Level. Water, Sanitation and Health Protection of the Human Environment. WHO, Geneva. http://www.who.int/watersanitation_health/en/wsh0404.pdf  Pg 9-14.

7. WSSCC (Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council). 2000. Vision 21: Water for People – A Shared Vision for Hygiene, Water Supply and Sanitation and a Framework for Action. WSSC,Geneva. http://www.wsscc.org/pdf/V21core.pdf   Pg.28

8. UN Task Force on Water and Sanitation. 2004 Achieving the Millennium Development Goals for water and Sanitation: What will it take? Interim Full Report. http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/tf7interim.pdf  Pg.46 and 53-54

9. WHO/UNICEF. 2000. Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment Report 2000. WHO, Geneva. http://www.who.int/docstore/water_sanitation_health/Globassessment/GlobalTOC.htm  Pg.16 and 30-31

10. 1 OECD. 2003. Supporting the Development of Water and Sanitation Services in Developing Countries. OECD Publications, Paris. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/27/22/2955840.pdf

Background Report containing full details of all the material used in support of this Briefing Note

For further information contact:

WELL

Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC)

Loughborough University

Leicestershire LE11 3TU  UK

Email: well@lboro.ac.uk 

Phone: +44 (0) 1509 228304

Fax:  +44 (0) 1509 223970

BACK TO TOP

Home > Resources > Fact sheets > Child survival