* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Laura Crowley is media and communications officer at WaterAid. The opinions expressed are her own.
If efforts to eradicate global poverty are to succeed, the needs of the poorest and most excluded people must be considered at every level of planning and development, WaterAid said at Stockholm World Water Week on Sunday.
The international charity led a seminar called "Closing the Gap: Building on success in Equity and Inclusion", together with UNICEF and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC).
The organisations are joining forces to overcome the barriers that exist in reaching the most excluded communities with clean water and improved sanitation.
Despite the U.N. General Assembly declaring that access to water and sanitation is a human right, research shows that the poorest and most vulnerable people are being denied this right time and time again.
The needs of older people, disabled people, women, children, those living with HIV/AIDS and members of disadvantaged minority groups are repeatedly overlooked. Further efforts may be futile if their different needs fail to be met.
“Successes have been made in reaching the hardest to reach in pockets around the world,” said Tom Palakudiyil, Head of the South Asia Region at WaterAid.
“However, now we need more political commitment that translates into positive action, financing that is better targeted, and knowledge of solutions that are accessible, affordable and adaptable in order to make this progress wider-reaching.
“There have been promises made around improving water and sanitation for all, but good intentions, policies and programme designs will not do it on their own. Equity will need to be woven into the fabric of every investment, every supervisory mission, every reward and every audit.”
Amanda Marlin from WSSCC added: “The declaration of the right to water and sanitation cannot lead to immediate action, and doesn’t necessarily mean it should come free of charge.
“However, it has given us an opportunity to increase global access to water and sanitation by paving the way for a change in thinking and policy. We need to work together across organisations to promote and enable equity and inclusion in access to the basic necessities of life.”
Success stories
The session highlighted successful efforts to reach those groups that have previously been left out from water and sanitation programmes.
For example, 15 percent of the world’s population has a disability, but their needs in developing countries are often overlooked, having a huge impact both on the disabled person and their families and carers.
Accessible and affordable facilities have been developed at a local and regional level that can meet individual needs, providing valuable knowledge on how to enable people with disabilities to use facilities in safe and hygienic ways and showing that it can and has been done.
In Bangladesh, WaterAid has a dedicated programme for water and sanitation. Within this, is a project with tea plantation workers, who have been living without access to education, water or sanitation.
Hasin Jahan from WaterAid in Bangladesh said: “The isolated tea worker communities require targeted solutions that incorporate understanding and sensitivity to their different cultures and unique situation.
“Solutions must also overcome challenges of access, as they are confined to their tea gardens and outsiders are forbidden entry, and the challenge of time, due to their long working hours. We have made significant steps in improving their quality of life. If their needs can be met; so can others’.”
