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Achieving water security for Asia

W ater Asian

Outlook Development

2 0 0 7



W ater Asian

Outlook Development

2 0 0 7

Achieving water security for Asia



Asian Water Development Outlook 2007

© 2007 Asian Development Bank All rights reserved. Published 2007.

ISBN 978-981-4136-06-8

The views expressed in this book are those of the authors and do notnecessarily refect the views and policies of the Asian DevelopmentBank or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent.

The Asian Development Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility forany consequence of their use.

Use of the term “country” does not imply any judgment by theauthors or the Asian Development Bank as to the legal or otherstatus of any territorial entity.

Abbreviations

ADB Asian Development Bank APWF Asia-Pacic Water Forum AWDO Asian Water Development Outlook DMC developing member countries

GCS government, corporate, society GDP gross domestic productHDI Human Development IndexIDWA Index of Drinking Water Adequacy IRWR internal renewable water resource JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency MDG Millennium Development GoalNGO nongovernment organizationO&M operation and maintenancePPP purchasing power parity PPWSA Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority PRC People’s Republic of ChinaUNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientic and Cultural OrganisationUNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund WDI World Development Indicators WHO World Health Organization WPI Water Poverty Index WSS water supply and sanitation



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Contents

APWF Foreword v

ADB Foreword vi

About AWDO viii

New Insights on Water Security in Asia Asit K. Biswas

I. The Changing Water Management Landscape in Asia 1II. Water-related Trends 12

III. Urban Water Management 23IV. Ways Forward 32

Appendix IDWA: Index of Drinking Water Adequacy 41

Annexes Annex 1: Country Papers Summary 44Annex 2: Annotated List of Discussion Papers 47

Acknowledgments 49

Contents of Enclosed CD-ROM

Discussion Papers

I. Access to Drinking Water and Sanitation in Asia: Indicators andImplications

Bhanoji Rao

II. Water Resources and Development in Changing Asia

Olli Varis

III. Recent Advances in Water Resources Development and Management inDeveloping Countries in Asia

Geoff Wright

IV. Water Supply and Sanitation Issues in Asia

Arthur McIntosh V. Integrated Water Resources Management: A Reassessment

Asit K. Biswas

Contents



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VI. Country Papers

Geoff Bridges 1. Bangladesh

2. Cambodia3. People’s Republic of China

4. Fiji5. India6. Indonesia

7. Kazakhstan8. Pakistan

9. Philippines

10. Samoa11. Sri Lanka12. Viet Nam

VII. Water Management in Singapore

Cecilia Tortajada

VIII. Social Perceptions of the Impacts of Colombo Water Supply Projects

Asit K. Biswas, Ramani Jayatilaka, and Cecilia Tortajada

IX. Water Management in Mexico City

Cecilia Tortajada

X. Water Resources in Korea 2007Source: Water Resources and Environmental Research Center

Ministry of Construction and Transportation, Republic of Korea

XI. Japan’s Experience in Water Supply Sector After World War II Source: Japan Water Works Association

XII. Legal Framework, Finance and Institutional Arrangements of Japan’sSewerage System (Summary Document)

Source: Japan Bank for International Cooperation

XIII. Papers for Good Practices and Lessons LearnedSource: Japan Bank for International Cooperation

• Lessons Learnt from JBIC’s Experience in Assisting SewerageDevelopment in Asian Countries

• Development of Sewage Treatment System in Beijing, China• Yamuna Action Plan - India

XIV. Good Practices and Lessons Learned Source: Japan International Cooperation Agency

– included in the bibliography

XVI. Annotated Selected Bibliography

Compiled by Audrey Esteban

Contents of Enclosed CD-ROM (cont.)



v

he Asia-Pacic Water Forum (APWF) seeks to encouragecollaborative efforts on water resources management and

accelerate the effective integration of water resources manage-ment into the socioeconomic development process of the Asia and Pacic region. This Asian Water Development Outlook

2007 report marks an early milestone in the Forum’s progress.Established only in September 2006, the APWF is a resultof the Joint Declaration issued by the Water Ministers of the Asia-Pacic Region at the Fourth World Water Forum, MexicoCity six months earlier.

It is remarkable that so much information needed for thefuture management of the water and sanitation sectors in the Asia and Pacic region has already been assembled, analyzed,and made available through this timely report. These experi-ences and analyses, and the recommendations that can bedrawn from them contribute directly to the First Asia-Pacic

Water Summit, held in December 2007. The APWF Governing Council expresses its deep apprecia-

tion to Asian Development Bank and partner institutions forbringing the region’s water supply and sanitation sector issuestogether in this report.

APWF sincerely hopes that this contribution to meeting the present and coming challenges in the water supply andsanitation sector will be found useful to the many public,private, nongovernment, and community-based organizationsand interested individuals who share its vision of bringing safe water and sanitation to everyone in the region.

Professor Tommy Koh,

Ambassador-at-large, Singapore

Chair, Governing Council

Asia-Pacific Water Forum

APWF Foreword

T

APWF Foreword



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he Asian Water Development Outlook 2007 is a contribution by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to make a forward-look-

ing assessment of the possible water future of the world’s mostpopulous region. It is now increasingly being recognized that wateris likely to be a major critical resource issue all over the world, andthat the social, economic, and environmental future of Asia islikely to depend on how efciently and equitably this resource willbe managed in the coming years.

The Outlook is aimed at Asian policy makers and those inter-

ested in understanding the complexities and dimensions of currentand future water problems, and how these can be addressedsuccessfully in policy terms. Its main objective is to raise awarenessof water-related issues and to stimulate an informed debate onhow best to manage Asia’s water future. These are important andcomplex issues, and their timely management can contribute to theachievement of all the water-associated Millennium DevelopmentGoals and beyond.

This report brings together a wide range of water-relatedissues, problems, and challenges from a future-oriented, multi-disciplinary, and multisectoral perspective from around the Asia

and Pacic region. Highlighted are important topics that havebeen neglected or are being inadequately considered in mostcountries of the region. Among these is the urgent need toaddress the inherent interrelationships between water and otherimportant development-related sectors, like energy, food, and theenvironment. The future of Asian countries will be determinednot by developments in any one of these sectors but rather in theinteractions among all of them. Developments in all of these sec-tors will affect water, and, in turn, water developments will affectall these sectors. The accelerating change in demographics, suchas rural–urban migration and an increasingly elderly population,is another unexplored area with major implications for watermanagement. Many developing countries may risk mortgaging their water security in a decade or two if sanitation is used in arestricted sense of collecting and transferring untreated sewageto another area thereby contaminating freshwater sources. Theimportance of South–South knowledge and experience transferin an Asian context through the identication and objective

ADB Foreword T



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analyses of good practices is emphasized. The report is cautiously optimistic on Asia’s water future. It

points out that with existing knowledge, experience, and technol-ogy, the water problems of the Asian developing countries aresolvable. The main constraint is not physical scarcity of water,though this could be an issue in some areas, but inappropriate

management practices. The Outlook, which is expected to be the rst of a series of

analyses on the future water situation of Asia, focuses on urban water and wastewater management. It notes that the status of provision of clean and drinkable water continues to be a seriousconcern in many Asian urban centers. Of even greater concern areinadequate wastewater management practices—collection, propertreatment, and safe disposal of wastewater. As a result of this ne-glect, water bodies in and around urban centers are often seriously contaminated, affecting the health of both people and ecosystems.However, to improve the situation, there must be reliable data on

physical as well as social, economic, and environmental factors,presently lacking in many countries, on which to base soundpolicies. Solving urban drinkable water and wastewater problems will require strong political will, accelerating demand from civilsociety to solve these problems, adequate nancial and managerialsupport, and intensive capacity-building efforts at all levels.

The report is an independent analysis commissioned by ADB,and is the result of a collaborative effort by a team of eminentexperts led by Prof. Asit K. Biswas, and ably supported by Mr.Geoffrey Bridges, Mr. Arthur McIntosh, Prof. Bhanoji Rao, Prof.Olli Varis, and Dr. Geoffrey Wright, with support from ADB’s

Water Community of Practice. The report will help policy makersand civil society better understand the various issues associated with water, aiming at developing a common approach to meet themajor challenges.

ADB’s commitment to the sector is shown in our WaterFinancing Program 2006–2010, in which investments in water areexpected to double and be directed toward reforms and capacity development programs in rural communities, cities, and riverbasins; and in the associated Water Financing Partnership Facility to mobilize conancing and investments from developmentpartners. We encourage other partners to join us in this crucialendeavor.

Ursula Schäfer-Preuss

Vice President, Knowledge Management

and Sustainable Development

Asian Development Bank

ADB Foreword



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he Asian Water Development Outlook

(AWDO) 2007 is a package of factual information, data, experiences,and solutions to problems in the waterand sanitation sector of countries in

the Asia and Pacic region. It providescomparative data for the sector in anumber of countries and new perspec-tives on present issues in the sector andtheir relationships with other sectors,and looks at the sometimes startling and thought-provoking implications of present global trends on the future of the sector.

It begins with a sweeping overview of the sector by Asit Biswas that

explains why some countries, cities, andrural areas around the world have suc-ceeded in providing their populations with good water supply and sanitationand others have not. Developing coun-tries face much more difcult problemsthan developed countries because thegradual pace of development in theformer allowed the sector to keep up with and plan ahead of expansion,unlike in developing countries wheredevelopment is taking place at relatively breathtaking speed, defying the effortsin many cases of public providers tocope with such problems as populationsthat are both increasing and aging,industrial demand for and pollutionof water, and infrastructure needs for

About AWDO 2007

waste collection and treatment. Worldwide, competition for water is

increasing apace in response to growing energy—including biofuel produc-tion—and food needs, and for the

environment itself, an equally legitimateuser of water. In Asian developing countries, the problems of coping withthese demands are exacerbated by theoften short seasonal nature of rainfall, which must be stored to enable it to lastfrom one season to the next.

However, as Prof. Biswas pointsout “It is likely that if there will be a water crisis in the future, it will notcome because of actual physical scarcity

of water, as many predict at present,but because of continuing neglectof proper wastewater managementpractices. Continuation of the presenttrend will make available water sourcesincreasingly more contaminated, and will make provision of clean watermore and more expensive, as well asmore complex and difcult to manage.By diluting seriously the denition of access to clean water and considering sanitation only in a very restricted sense,developing countries, including many in Asia, are mortgaging their future interms of water security.”

In the past, population growth hasgenerally not been considered to bedirectly related to water management.

T



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those in the industrialized countries.Further, the results must be sustainableover the long term.

One of the main purposes of the AWDO 2007 is to focus the attentionof national leaders and key decision

makers on the need to increase invest-ments in the water sector if MillenniumDevelopment Goal (MDG) targets areto be achieved by 2015. Although somecountries have made good progress,others need to make dramatic improve-ments. This is shown quantitatively and qualitatively for twelve countriesfrom the region by Geoff Bridges. Hends several common issues that needto be resolved if countries are to meet

these targets, including poor sectoralmanagement; poor management of water resources; high water connectionfees that prevent the urban poor frombeing connected, and low tariffs thatdo not reect the true service cost forsustainability; and lack of awarenessamong consumers of the “true” valueand scarcity of water.

The solutions to these problems areimplied in their descriptions. However,

there are two key needs to make mea-surable progress. One is to collect betterquality and more comprehensive data,especially from water utilities, so thatreal problem areas can be pinpointed.Bridges uses an international data setthat, although based on 2004 informa-tion, overcomes the inconsistencies and“optimism” often appearing in nationaldata sets. The other is to implementand enforce existing policies and legisla-tion—policy development is not theissue. This can only happen if there isaccountability and a strong regulation/monitoring regime in place.

One measure of progress in theseand another 11 countries that togethercomprise 99% of the Asian developing

country population is a new compositedrinking water indicator, the Index of Drinking Water Adequacy (IDWA). Theindex was devised by Bhanoji Rao and isan average of ve components: measuresof access, capacity, quality, resources,

and use. The individual components canbe used to indicate directions for policy,program, and project actions. The new index seeks to overcome some of thelimitations of an existing indicator, the Water Poverty Index.

It is timely in that, half way throughthe MDGs timeframe, some countriesmay wish to ne-tune the goal andtargets on water (and sanitation as perthe Johannesburg Summit of 2002).

IDWA can be expanded, depending ondata availability, to include for example,dissolved oxygen concentration andsuspended solids that could be combinedinto a quality index that can then enterthe nal composite IDWA. Similarly, theindex could include sanitation if at leastone or two good sanitation indicators were available, not only reecting accessto toilet facilities but also waste collec-tion and disposal and sewage treatment.

However, as Prof. Rao points out, theaccuracy and consistency of national datamay be a stumbling block at present.

Major intersectoral problems associ-ated with water—population growthand aging, the economic and socialtransition in developing countries, issuesrelated to energy, food production,environment, and climate variation andchange—are presented in detail by Olli Varis. Population growth means morefood is needed from shrinking agricul-tural land, which points to the need toimprove efciency of soil and wateruse. Low quality of water or limitedaccess to water is one of the key deter-minants of poverty. At the same time,the poor cause a signicant proportion



xi

of global water quality problems, suchas through uncontrolled deforestation. Thus, investing in poverty reduction isan important policy measure in working against further degradation of waterresources and the environment.

Of importance is that 96% of contemporary renewable energy pro-duction comes from either biomass orhydropower. These both rely completely on water resources management. Inthis regard, joint management of riversand aquifers is of crucial importancein most parts of Asia because the bulk of the region’s population lives in riverbasins that include more than one state. Varis observes that in efforts toward

regional integration, water is a subjectthat far more often increases coopera-tion than causes conicts.

Progress in water resources develop-ment and management is being madeusing different approaches in differentcountries across Asia. Geoff Wright de-scribes some of these advances. He ndsthat there are some common features insuccessful management examples fromaround the region, including stable and

strong institutional frameworks; highlevel of cooperation and coordinationamong agencies; strategic and integratedplanning in place; effective stakeholderand community participation; andreliable and comprehensive data andinformation, and decision-support toolsin use. He gives examples and usefulmodels to follow.

Water supply issues are discussed by Arthur McIntosh. Adequacy of clean water, a basic human need, has becomea critical factor. The supply problemsthat have become most urgent are waterquality and pollution, water conserva-tion, and water and demand-sidemanagement. Water quality and pollu-tion solutions include treating pollution

at source, addressing disposal of solidresidues from municipal treatment,monitoring water quality, investing in wastewater treatment on a largescale, and seeking local government/community and nongovernment

organization partnerships. Conservationcan be improved through rainwaterand stormwater harvesting and storage,incentives for water conservation, andregaining a respect or reverence for water, which has held a prominent placein all religions as the essence of life.Managing demand is basically a matterof adjusting tariffs. The present low tar-iffs common across much of the regionnot only result in degraded systems, but

also perpetuate an inequitable subsidy to the rich, not the poor. In many cases,the solution may only require improvedawareness by politicians.

The parallel issue is connecting theurban poor to piped water. McIntoshlists the many obstacles and options toovercome them, the best option being that the public or private utility borrowsfor connection fees, allowing poorconsumers to pay over a long period

with minimal tariff increase. A pressing problem associated with

pollution is open defecation in parts of the region, which concerns the healthand dignity of a great many people, notto mention the environmental aspect.Community-led total sanitation efforts, which focus on demand creation, havenot only successfully overcome the low demand for sanitation, but have alsodelivered signicant changes in col-lective behavior, resulting in improvedhealth for all.

The AWDO 2007 multimedia CD-ROM also contains a large amount of published reference material, particularly from the Asian Development Bank, AsitBiswas and Cecilia Tortajada of the Third

About AWDO 2007



xii


World Centre for Water Managementin Mexico, World Bank, Japan Bank forInternational Cooperation, and JapanInternational Cooperation Agency. Thereare summaries of more than 100 experi-ence documents from around the region

as well as video and audio les illustrating good practice solutions in specic situa-tions.

A common message from many papers in the AWDO 2007 is thatcommitment and leadership need to be

further developed among senior manag-ers and ofcials. Finding champions whorecognize the importance of implement-ing water management reforms andhaving the vision and courage to pro-mote them may be the greatest challenge

of all. The AWDO 2007 offers many examples of ways to overcome theseand the other problems faced by Asiandeveloping countries in the water supply and sanitation sector. The AWDO 2007 is a recipe for action.



1

ccording to Leonardo da Vinci, water is the driver of nature. It

could have been considered to be anoverstatement in the 16th century during his lifetime, but nearly half a millenniumlater, Leonardo’s view on water can beconsidered prophetic. Water is increas-ingly being realized to be the lifebloodof the planet and it is certainly not an

overstatement to claim that withoutrational water development and itsefcient management, the future socialand economic development of Asiandeveloping countries will be seriously constrained or even jeopardized. Theeminent economist and Prime Ministerof India, Manmohan Singh, has notedthat if India’s current economic growthrate is to be maintained and if all thepeople of the country, especially thepoor and the vulnerable, are to sharethe benets of rapid economic growth,two resource issues need priority con-sideration: energy and water. The PrimeMinister further noted that if these twoissues can be properly addressed, and if all the members of the society can have

adequate access to energy and water,many of the existing societal problemscan be resolved.

It has been well known for millen-nia that human survival and ecosystemconservation depend on the reliableavailability of adequate water of appro-priate quality. It is equally well knownfrom prehistoric times that food and

New Insightson Water Security in Asia

Asit K. Biswas

Children collecting water, Afghanistan

A

New Insights on Water Security in Asia: I. The Changing Water Management Landscape in Asia

I. The Changing Water Management Landscape in Asia



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agricultural production requires water.

As the human population grew, thefood requirement increased as well, and with it water demands for producing thenecessary food. The water-food interre-lationships have always been important,but in recent years, these linkageshave become more and more complexbecause of social and environmentalconcerns, technological developments,globalization, and management prac-tices.

With the advent of the industrialrevolution, the situation changeddramatically. The industrial require-ments for water started to increase very signicantly, as did the need forcollection, treatment, and safe disposalof wastewater. In quantitative terms,

the industrial water needs of many

Asian countries have now exceededdomestic needs and are increasing at amuch faster pace, especially as indus-trialization often has had to start fromhistorically low bases.

Environmental issues for watermanagement became important during the 1970s, not only in Asia but alsothe rest of the world. Increasingly, alldevelopment activities, including thoseon water, had to consider environmentalimplications seriously and comprehen-sively. These considerations receivedconsiderable momentum during the1980s, and are now universally acceptedas an integral requirement for efcientand rational water management.

With rapid industrialization and

Nepalese farmer pumping

water for irrigation

Major policy changes in the

water and energy sectors will be

needed in the nearfuture to balance water and energy uses in agriculture

and stabilize thelevels of declining

groundwatertables



3

demands for a better quality of life,energy requirements have gone up as well. In recent years, the energy needs of Asian developing countries are increasing very rapidly and are likely to continueto do so for the foreseeable future. This

comparatively recent development hasmajor water-related implications, whichfor the most part have been ignored by both water and energy professionals andpolicy makers.

Water and Food

Water is essential for food production. As the Asian population grows in thecoming decades, more and more crop

production will be needed for humanand animal consumption. Equally, as Asian countries continue to make eco-nomic progress, increasingly more andmore people will become afuent; thus,many are likely to change their dietary patterns and eat more protein, such as inmeat and milk. This will further increase water requirements because animalhusbandry requires more water than cropproduction.

This, however, does not mean that water demands for producing this ad-ditional food requirement will increaseconcomitantly. This is because thereis no one-to-one relationship between water requirement and food production.Crop yields can be increased in different ways, including more efcient use of fertilizers and pesticides, better quality seeds, and improved management prac-tices. In addition, the food producedshould not be the only consideration.In reality, it is the food that is availableto consumers that counts. Regrettably,in many Asian countries, 25–50% of crops, fruits, and vegetables producedat present are not consumed becauseof heavy losses at every stage of

production, transportation, distribution,and storage. Reduction of these lossesalone would increase food availability greatly, without any reference to water. Accordingly, there are many factorsthat affect the total food availability to

consumers, and water is not necessarily the most important factor. These issueshave complex interrelationships and areoften location specic. Thus, it is oftendangerous, and mostly misleading, todraw generalized conclusions on thequantity of additional water that may be needed to increase the availability of food to consumers in Asian countries, without additional comprehensivestudies.

Agriculture is by far the majoruser of water in Asia. In many Asiancountries, agricultural water use ac-counts for nearly 90% of total wateruse. However, this percentage has beendeclining steadily in recent years in Asiaas a whole, as in the rest of the world.In contrast, industrial water use has beenincreasing. Nevertheless, in absolutequantitative terms, agricultural water

Watering crops in the Philippines




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uses in most Asian countries have beenincreasing.

A major problem with agricultural water use has been that many Asiancountries have been pursuing incor-rect policies in terms of water and

energy used for groundwater pumping.Farmers in some subregions at presentdo not pay for the actual volume of groundwater pumped for irrigation.In addition, energy costs for pumping are very heavily subsidized by many governments. Accordingly, farmers oftenpump more groundwater than is neededfor optimizing crop production. Thisover-pumping is resulting in a steady decline of groundwater levels in many

Asian aquifers. As the groundwater levelsdecline, more energy is needed to pumpthe same quantity of water. Becausethe energy costs for farmers are heavily subsidized, the nancial losses of many public electricity boards are continuing to escalate. This has contributed to a vicious cycle of overuse of groundwater,declining aquifer levels, increasing lossesto the electricity boards, and increasing adverse environmental impacts (like

land subsidence), none of which aresustainable on a long-term basis. Thus,major policy changes in the water andenergy sectors will be needed in thenear future to balance water and energy uses and stabilize the levels of declining groundwater tables.

In the future, these types of inter-sectoral policies need to be carefully analyzed, formulated, and implemented.Equally, the policies in any specicsector have to be coordinated with thepolicies in associated sectors. The cur-rent and past practices of formulating policies in one sector without adequateconsideration of and coordination with the policies in the other sectors will become increasingly costly, inef-

cient, and unsustainable. Herein willlie a major future challenge for Asiandeveloping countries: how to integrateappropriately all the concerned resourcepolicies in the areas of water, energy,food, and the environment; the legaland regulatory frameworks necessary to support these policies; and theinstitutions responsible for formulating and implementing these policies. Suchintegration has been very difcult toaccomplish in the past and is likely tobe even more complex and difcult inthe future. Yet, this will be an importantand critical requirement of the futurethat must now receive greater attentionfrom Asian governments, researchinstitutions, and academe.

Water pumping for agricultural use in Nepal

A major challengefor Asian develop-

ing countries inthe areas of water,energy, food, and

the environment ishow to coordinate

appropriately allthe concerned

resource policies,legal and regula-

tory frameworks,and institutionsresponsible for

formulating andimplementing these policies



5

Water and the Environment

An increasing social and politicalconcern arose in the 1970s about theimpact of water development andmanagement policies and practices on

the environment. Since about 1995, theimplications of environmental manage-ment policies on water developmentand management have received increas-ing attention. During the past 35 years, water and environment policies haveaffected each other in many signicant ways, sometimes positively, but at othertimes adversely. These interacting impacts—in terms of their distributionin time and space and in scale—are

mostly site specic.

During the early part of the globalenvironmental movement, the primary focus was on how to stop all typesof pollution. For example, during theUnited Nations Conference on theHuman Environment, held in Stockholm

in 1972, the main water-related concernsconsidered were preventing water pol-lution and the impact of acid rain onforests and lakes. Shortly after, there wasa backlash from some sectors of society on all types of large infrastructure development projects. This was especially relevant for large dams and irrigationprojects. In this “small is beautiful” era,all large development projects attractedconsiderable criticism, some of which

was justied but some was ctional.

Water plant and reservin the Lao People’sDemocratic Republic




6


During the 1980s and 1990s, large water development projects all overthe world, and especially in Asia, cameunder considerable criticism from socialand environmental activists and thenongovernment organization (NGO)

movement. This movement probably reached its peak with controversiesassociated with the construction of somelarge dams—the Sardar Sarovar and the Tehri dams in India, and Arun II Damin Nepal—and the Nagara Barrage (toprevent saltwater intrusion) in Japan. These controversies had both positiveand negative impacts on future waterdevelopment activities.

On the positive side, many social

and environmental considerations that were not properly addressed earlierstarted to receive increased attention.Environmental and social impactanalyses became the norm, ratherthan exception. Issues like involuntary resettlements and adverse environmen-tal and ecosystem impacts due to largeinfrastructure development projectsbecame important concerns. Indeed thepressure from certain sectors of society

was such that these shortcomings notonly received considerable attention,but planners and policy makers wereforced to respond to them promptly and adequately. Consequently, many undesirable or even unanticipated

aspects of the development activities were properly considered and oftenappropriate ameliorative actions weretaken. This probably would not havehappened at least within the observedtime scales, without concerted opposi-tion from certain sectors of society.

The negative consequences of thesecontroversies have been that many waterinfrastructure development projectsthat should have been constructed for

poverty reduction, employment genera-tion, and raising the living standards of the people made little headway. Severalfunding agencies stayed away fromsupporting these projects because of thecontroversies surrounding them, whichconsistently received considerable na-tional and international media attention.For some unexplained reasons, waterprojects created more controversies thanother types of development activities.

The situation has started to improvein recent years, especially during thepresent, post-2000, period, whenit is being increasingly realized thatinfrastructure development must receivepriority attention in all Asian developing countries. Equally, however, these struc-tures need to be planned and managedin such a way that they are technically feasible, economically efcient, socially acceptable, and environmentally friendly. As societal perceptions havechanged and the knowledge base toplan and manage water infrastructurehas improved, it is now possible to im-prove the earlier practices signicantly by maximizing the positive economic,social, and environmental impacts,

Indonesian residencesadjacent to a sewage canal



7

minimizing the negative impacts, andensuring that the people who are likely to pay the costs of the projects (i.e.,those in involuntary resettlement) areexplicitly made their direct beneciaries.

With this changing mindset and betterunderstanding and appreciation of environment-development linkages, itis likely that the overall discussion of water development and environmentalissues will become more objective andless polarizing in the future.

While this aspect of large waterdevelopments and their environmentalimplications has received considerableattention from the media and policy makers, another environmental issuehas received somewhat benign neglect:increasing water contamination frompoint and nonpoint sources because of accelerating domestic, industrial, andagricultural activities. The provision of clean water supply has received con-

siderable attention from policy makersin Asian developing countries, butcommensurate interest in wastewater col-lection, treatment, and disposal has oftenbeen conspicuous by its relative absence.Regrettably, there are only limited signs

that this attitude is starting to change. And yet, increasing water pollution

is a major issue for nearly all Asiandeveloping countries. Unless the pres-ent perceptions and attitudes changeradically, it is likely to be a critical waterproblem of the future. This is becauseat the domestic level, nearly all waterthat enters the household is eventually discharged as wastewater. Even in many urban centers where wastewater is col-

lected through sewer systems, it is oftendischarged to freshwater bodies, land,or oceans with only limited, or even no,treatment. This means that the problemof increasing wastewater contaminationis not being solved: it is being simply transferred from one location to another. The philosophy has been somewhat akinto “out of sight, out of mind.”

The situation is becoming even moreserious and complex with industrial

wastewater discharges, which also,for the most part, receive inadequatetreatment in nearly all Asian developing countries. Few Asian urban centers havefunctional secondary and tertiary wastetreatment plants. Many primary wastetreatment plants are nonfunctional forsignicant periods of time because of poor design, inadequate managementand political interest, public apathy, andsimilar causes. Even when these plantsfunction, most operate below theirdesign efciencies. The domestic wastesare primarily organic, as a result of which they degrade over a limited time.However, the situation is more complexand serious for industrial wastes, which contain signicant amounts of

Increasing waterpollution fromaccelerating do-mestic, industriaand agriculturalactivities is a ma

issue for nearly a Asian developingcountries. Unlesthe presentperceptions andattitudes changeradically, it is liketo be a critical

water problem othe future

Wastewater pollution in Manila




8


conservative elements that may be toxicto human beings and ecosystems, and arenot easily biodegradable.

With rapid industrial and urbangrowth, environmentally-sound wastewater disposal in all Asian developing

countries is rapidly becoming a serioussocial and human health issue. In ad-dition, as the nearby surface water andgroundwater sources for urban centersare being increasingly contaminated with domestic and industrial waste,these sources will require higher levelsof treatment before they can be usedsafely as potable water. The treatmentprocesses needed to decontaminatepolluted sources are likely to become

increasingly sophisticated and expen-sive, which may not be an attractive orfeasible alternative for many urban areasbecause of economic and technology management constraints in the coming decades.

Because wastewater managementis often viewed, at least in terms of practice, primarily as collection andthen disposal in nearby rivers, lakes, andoceans, water bodies within and aroundurban centers are already highly con-taminated. Land disposal of wastewater

is also contaminating groundwater, which is often an important source of drinking water.

These assessments refer only topoint sources of contamination fromdomestic and industrial users: nonpoint

sources are not covered. Because theuse of agricultural chemicals in many Asian developing countries is stillsomewhat limited, nonpoint sources of pollution are still not as serious as pointsources. However, as there is increasing emphasis on improving crop productionper unit area to enhance both farmers’incomes and food security, more andmore agricultural chemicals are likely tobe used in the future. This will further

aggravate the water quality situation,because control and management of nonpoint sources of pollution are very complex and difcult tasks, as even themost developed countries like Japan andthe United States have experienced.

Thus, in a macro sense, a majorchallenge facing Asian developing countries is how quickly and how efciently current wastewater manage-ment practices and processes can be

substantially improved. Considering the cost of construction and efcientoperation of wastewater managementsystems, and the number of trained andexperienced personnel needed to managethem—ranging from managers to plantoperators and technicians, who aremostly not available at present—resolu-tion of this problem in the foreseeablefuture will be a Herculean task.

Another macro issue in the water andenvironment area is likely to stem fromthe increasing acceptance of the conceptof environmental ows. Many countrieshave now accepted, or are in the processof accepting, that the environment is alegitimate user of water. This means thatcertain quantities of the ows in rivers

Many countrieshave now ac-

cepted, or are inthe process of accepting, that

the environmentis a legitimateuser of water

Water reservoir in thePeople’s Republic of China



9

have to be earmarked for environmentaland ecosystem use.

It is highly likely that in the foresee-able future, there will be increasing acceptance of this concept in Asiandeveloping countries. This will present

two types of problems, one conceptualand the other practical. At the con-ceptual level, considerable work needsto be done as to how environmentalows of rivers can be reliably estimatedfor the various Asian countries, withdifferent climatic regimes, physical andecosystem conditions, and other associ-ated requirements. How can such owsbe reliably estimated for both perennialand ephemeral rivers? Considerable

progress has been made on estimating environmental ows in recent years, butmuch work remains before the scienticcommunity will agree on a reliable anduncontroversial methodology.

At the practical level, water resourcesof many of the Asian rivers are already fully allocated and, in some cases,over-allocated, especially during the dry seasons and drought periods. Undersuch conditions, new allocations of

water to the environment will mean thatsome existing allocations to domestic,industrial, and agricultural sectors haveto be reduced. Socially and politically,it will not be an easy task to reduce thecurrent allocations to existing users sothat this amount can be diverted forenvironmental use. In addition, fortransboundary rivers, as well as interstaterivers in federal countries like Indiaand Pakistan, this will raise new sets of legal issues, especially when inter- andintra-country treaties already exist for water allocations to various state parties.Considering it often takes 20 years ormore to negotiate new water allocationtreaties for transboundary and interstaterivers, implementation of the concept of

environmental ows will not be an easy process in many Asian locations.

Finally, the impact of the environ-ment, especially through natural disasters,on water and sanitation infrastructure,cannot be forgotten. As much as pos-

sible, infrastructure has to be designed to withstand oods, earthquakes, and othernatural disasters—the 2004 tsunami in Aceh Province, Indonesia, being a goodexample (Box 1).

Water and Energy

As the energy needs for Asian countriescontinue to increase signicantly, the water requirements of the energy sectorare likely to explode as well, a fact thathas mostly escaped the attention of water and energy planners. Large-scalegeneration of electricity invariably requires water. Without water, hydro-power, an important source of electricity in many Asian countries, cannot begenerated. Equally, thermal powergeneration from coal, oil, or natural gasrequires very large quantities of cooling water. Nuclear power requires even

Box 1: Natural Disasters and their Impact on Water Supply and Sanitation – The Indonesia Tsunami Experience

The tsunami that followed a massive earthquake on 26 December 2004 off Indonesia, devastated the human population living on thecoastline of Aceh Province and parts of North Sumatra Province. The

rural water supply (dug wells and hand pumps) was hard-hit by thedisaster. Significant damage was also experienced by water utilitiesin Aceh’s urban areas. Total damage and losses in the sector wereestimated at US$29.7 million (Rp276.4 billion), of which 96% wasfor water supply and the remainder for sanitation. Relatively littledamage was done to the urban sanitation system, largely becausesanitation was provided by septic tanks with no investment insewerage. For water supply, two thirds of the damage was incurredby small-scale and private providers, and the balance by the water supply enterprises.

Source: BAPPENAS and the International Donor Community. 2005. Indonesia:Preliminary Damage and Cost Assessment – The December 26, 2004 NaturalDisaster. http://www.adb.org/media/Articles/2005/6618_tsunami_impact_Indonesia/

Aceh_Joint_Government_Donor_Damage_Assessment.pdf




10


more cooling water. If the current rateof 5–8% in annual increase in electricity consumption is to be maintained inmany Asian developing countries for theindenite future, as is expected at pres-ent, water requirements for the energy sector need to be carefully assessed, andthen factored into national water policies. Already, in countries like France, themajor user of water is the electricity-generating industry, not the agricultural

sector.In spite of the burgeoning demands

of the electricity-generating industry for water, the growth rates of which arelikely to remain at similar levels or evenaccelerate further in the coming decades,not one Asian developing country has seriously assessed the current andfuture water requirements of its energy sector. Furthermore, assuming that this water demand has to be met, what arethe implications for water allocation toother existing uses, and also in terms of impacts on aquatic ecosystems? There isno question that the water requirementsfor the energy sector will increase signi-cantly in the future, even if it is assumedthat the existing systems for generation

and distribution of energy become moreefcient in the coming years.

In addition, there is considerable mo-mentum in the production of crops forbiofuel. If efciently produced, biofuelcan contribute to improving the energy

security of some nations, but this willnot come without social and economiccosts. It will also have signicant implica-tions for many other natural resources,especially land and water, in terms of their availability and use patterns.

Asian biofuel production will requiremore and more water if this subsectorexpands, as expected. As the use of agricultural chemicals like pesticidesand fertilizers increases to improve

the yields of the biofuel crops, waterbodies around such production systemsmay witness higher levels of nonpointpollution. Accordingly, the productionand processing of the biofuel crops arelikely to bring with them attendant waterquantity and quality implications. As long as these implications are clearly thoughtthrough in terms of social, economic,and environmental considerations,and appropriate remedial measures are

implemented as and when required, theproblems may be manageable. However,as of now, virtually no country hascarefully analyzed the water, land, andsocial implications of increasing biofuelproduction, and then made appropriatepolicy decisions. These are importantissues that need to be carefully analyzedby national policy makers in the future toenable them to make coordinated poli-cies in terms of energy, land, water, theenvironment, and poverty reduction.

In addition, just as the energy indus-try requires large quantities of water tofunction, the water sector is equally animportant user of energy for its opera-tion. Energy requirements for pumping are already very signicant in nearly all

Hydro energy–generatingdam, Indonesia



11

Asian countries. As water and wastewatertreatment plants increase exponentially inthe coming years, the energy needed fortheir proper operation and maintenance will increase concomitantly. Thus, the water and energy sectors will be even

more closely interlinked in the futurethan they are now. This will requireincreasing coordination and integrationof policies related to the management of these two sectors.

Furthermore, with the reduction inthe costs of desalination in recent years,it is becoming an important source forincreasing supplies of water. Membranetechnology is likely to be increasingly used in the future for wastewater treat-

ment. By using the new generation of membranes and improved managementpractices, seawater desalination costshave fallen by a factor of three during the past decade. At the current cost of producing desalinated or decontaminated water (around US$0.45–0.60 per cubicmeter) through reverse osmosis, thetechnique has become cost-effective formany countries for special situationsand conditions (for example, island

countries like Singapore). The cost of purifying brackish water is now evenless: US$0.20–0.35 per cubic meter,depending on its salt content. Theserecent technological breakthroughs arebringing new alternatives toward solving water quantity and quality problems buthave many other implications, especially in energy and technology management, which need to be carefully assessedbefore they can be successfully andextensively used on a sustainable basis in Asia.

Thus, it will become increasingly im-portant for planners and policy makersto concurrently consider water andenergy policies, especially in terms of their symbiotic relationship: each affects

and is affected by the other. This inter-linkage is likely to only intensify furtherin the future. Formulation of policies ineither sector that do not consider suchinterlinkages and interrelationships arelikely to become increasingly counterpro-

ductive, especially in social, economic,and environmental terms.

The rapidly changing landscape in Asia means that water management prac-tices and processes are now faced withcomplex and intersectoral challengesfrom other resource and developmentsectors, the types of which have beenseldom faced in the entire human history.Meeting these challenges successfully and in a timely manner will require new

and innovative approaches and solutions.Past experiences and present practicesare no longer enough.

As the energy needs for Asian

countries con-tinue to increasesignicantly, the

water require-ments of theenergy sector,including the newbiofuel subsectoare likely to rise

well

Inspecting Tangshan City Dongjiao Waterwaste Treatment Plant,People’s Republic of China




12


II. Water-related Trends

nlike in the past, it is no longer

enough to consider only the current water trends to ensure efcient watermanagement in Asia in the future. It willbe increasingly essential to identify thepresent and likely future trends in othersectors that will signicantly affect water management directly or indirectly. This will not be an easy task becausemuch of Asia is undergoing a massiveeconomic and social transformation,

which is unleashing forces that often

may have signicant water implications.Some of these forces are known butoften unquantiable, while others areas yet unknown. In addition, Asiancountries are not homogeneous in theirsocial and economic development, orin the different factors that are likely to affect their development processes. Thus, it is not possible to draw a gen-eralized picture of water-related trendsin Asia that will be equally applicable

all over the region. The issue becomeseven more complex when the potentialimpacts of globalization, free trade,communication and information revolu-tion, and concurrent quests for energy,food, environment, and water securitiesare considered. All these will affect thequantity and quality of available waterthrough numerous pathways.

In spite of the differing Asianconditions and situations, a generaloverview can be considered for severaloverarching transformational forceslikely to affect Asian water managementpractices and processes. Among thesetransformational forces are demogra-phy, climate change, and technology,discussed in this section.

River bank slums, Manilla

U



13

DemographicTransformation

Asia currently accounts for slightly over60% of the global population, and alsofor almost two-thirds of global popula-

tion growth. The Asian population isexpected to grow by nearly 500 million within the next 10 years, and virtually allthis growth is expected to be in urbanareas.

South Asia is among the mostdensely populated areas of the worldand has the highest concentration of poor people in the world. While thepopulation growth rates in countries likeBangladesh and India have declined, they

have not in Nepal and Pakistan.Southeast Asia is less populated than

South Asia, but it also has crowded areas,especially Java, part of the Philippines,and deltas of rivers like the Red,Mekong, Chao Phraya, and Irrawaddy.During the 80-year period 1970–2050,the population in this region is estimatedto grow 3-fold. The corresponding estimate for South Asia is 3.4-fold, andfor the People’s Republic of China

(PRC), 2-fold.Large and growing populations exert

increasing pressures on natural resourceslike land and water. However, the rela-tionship between human population sizeand demand for natural resources is nota simple one. Throughout history, socialand economic changes and factors liketechnological developments and bettermanagement practices have affectedpressures on the natural resource base. This pattern is likely to continue fordecades to come.

In the past, population growth hasgenerally been considered to be exog-enous to water management. This is notcorrect. Populations affect water in termsof demand, use patterns, and manage-

ment practices. Similarly, water affectspopulations directly in terms of health(for example, waterborne diseases affectmortality rates), and indirectly, throughsuch issues as regional development,employment generation, and gender-related matters. Box 2 illustrates how improving water supply has improvedpublic health in Japan.

In terms of demographic trans-formations, two issues that are likely to affect water in increasing ways areurbanization and aging. These issuesneed special consideration.

Box 2: Increase in Water Service Coverage and PublicHealth Improvements through the Development of Small-scale Public Water Supply Services in Japan

Before World War II, waterworks were regarded as infrastructurethat was available only in the central areas of Japanese cities.However, the national water service coverage significantly increased

after the war and has now reached 97%. This is largely due to therapid development of waterworks facilities during the 1960s and1970s, which particularly targeted previously unserved areas. Thiswas carried out by water utilities that serve a population of 5,000 or less and areas where public health issues were urgent. The nationalGovernment established a subsidy system in 1952 to develop andsupport small-scale public water supply services.

As shown in the Figure below, the number of outbreaks of water-related infectious diseases has dramatically decreased, particularlysince the mid-1970s. This demonstrates that the development of waterworks played a significant role in public health improvement.

Source: Japan Water Works Association. Outline of Water Supply 2001, 30 August2001.

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New Insights on Water Security in Asia: II. Water-related Trends



14


Urbanization

Globally, the rural and urban populationis now roughly in balance. However, Asia has been behind Latin America inthe extent of urbanization. Accordingly, Asian countries are likely to witness a

massive urbanization process during thenext 2 to 3 decades. While it is estimatedthat the Asian rural population willremain almost stationary between now and 2025, the urban population is likely to increase by 60%. Changes in popula-tion densities in South and Southeast Asia and the PRC are shown in Figure 1for 1970–2050.

Massive urbanization, which is un-precedented in the entire Asian history,

will present new types of water-relatedchallenges that all countries will have toface. These challenges may not be similarto those expected at present. They couldbe of a wholly different character, andsome may even be counter-intuitive. Forexample, considerable attention has beenpaid in recent years to the water and wastewater problems of the megacities,

dened by the United Nations as having populations of more than 10 million. While Asian megacities consume the

lion’s share of national resources andinterest, they represented only 3.7% of the global population in 2000. This isexpected to increase to about 4.7% by 2015. The percentage of populationliving in the next category of large cities,between 5 and 10 million, is even less:2.8% in 2000, and rising to 3.7% by 2015.

In contrast, urban centers of 500,000 or less accounted for 24.8% of

the global population in 2000 (nearly seven times that of the megacities) andthis is projected to increase to 27% by 2015. These centers have received scantattention from national and internationalinstitutions, and water and developmentprofessionals. Yet, the annual aver-age population growth rate for thesesmaller urban centers is expected toincrease from 23.2% during 1975–2000(comparable growth rate for megacities was 5%, or less than a quarter) to 28.2%during 2000–2015, compared to 7.5%for megacities. Figure 2 shows that themajority of the cities in Indonesia andIndia have a maximum population of 500,000, while in the PRC, cities withpopulations of 500,000 and below are a

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Massive,unprecedentedurbanization in

Asia—especially the many small

urban centers(<500,000

people)—willpresent new types

of water- and wastewater-related

challenges thatall countries will

have to face

Figure 1: Population Density in SelectedParts of Asia and the Rest of the World(persons per square kilometer)

Addressing thechallenge of providing

piped water to crowdedslum communities

PRC

South Asia

Southeast Asia

Rest of World



15

close second to cities with populationsranging from 500,000 to 1 million. Thus,solving the future water and wastewaterproblems of these small urban centers will need at least as much attention asthe megacities, if not more. Their water

problems are likely to be signicantly more difcult to resolve than thoseof megacities, because these smallercenters do not have adequate nancialand political power and technical andmanagement capacities to handle theirmuch higher urbanization rates. Eventhough the number of people involvedin smaller centers is 6.7 times thatof the megacities—and their growthrates are expected to be four times

those of the megacities—it is a strangeanomaly that these smaller centers arereceiving conspicuously less attentionfrom national and international policy makers. Unless the present policy andfocus change radically, these centers arelikely to be major water and wastewater“black-holes” of the future. Box 3 showshow the Republic of Korea addressedthe problem of imbalanced water supply to benet water-stressed areas.

Another issue worth noting isthe dissimilarity in the urbanizationprocesses between the megacities of the developed and developing world.Cities like London and New York grew progressively over nearly a century. Thisgradual growth enabled these citiesto develop effectively their water and wastewater infrastructures and theirmanagement services. In contrast, thegrowth rates of the Asian megacitieslike Dhaka, Jakarta, or Karachi in recentdecades have simply been explosive(Figure 3). They have invariably foundit very difcult to run faster even to stay in the same place. Most simply have notbeen able to cope with the explosivegrowth rates.

To a certain extent, many of thesemegacities have managed to provide water to their residents, especially to thereasonably well maintained residentialareas. However, in many cases, the waterprovided is not drinkable without addi-tional treatment. Furthermore, they haveprogressively fallen behind in the collec-

Figure 2: City Size for Capital Cities and Urban Agglomerations

Source: Asian Development Bank and Cities Alliance: Cities with Slums, 2006.Urbanization and Sustainability in Asia. Case Studies of Good Practice.

Box 3: Formulation of Multi-regional Water Supply Systems with Expansion Water Supply Facilities

The Republic of Korea is setting up wide-area water supplies, whichinclude waterworks adjustment by zone to use water resources moreefficiently, and integrated waterworks systems by zone to improvethe efficiency in managing water supply facilities. A wide-area water supply is a facility that provides purified water to at least two localcommunities that have suffered from a poor water supply system. Ithelps provide a large amount of water to a number of districts, andensures a sustainable water supply for those districts. Moreover, ithelps address the water supply imbalance between the districts.

A basic guideline on wide-area water supply was completed in2003, dividing the nation into 12 zones based on the proximity towater facility and connection to the supply system. Multipurpose

dams are being planned and constructed in different zones of somerivers and others are scheduled to be included in the near future.Through these efforts, more water can be provided to water-

stressed areas, which will contribute to resolving the imbalance of water supply among areas and to providing stable water supplieseven in emergencies, such as drought.

Source: Water Resources in Korea 2007, Ministry of Construction and Transportation,Republic of Korea.

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tion, treatment, and environmentally safedisposal of wastewater. Wastewater may be collected from sections of these cities,but often is discharged to nearby rivers,lakes, or oceans without any treatment,or with only primary treatment. Because

of this continuing neglect, water bodiesin and around many urban centers of Asian developing countries are now heavily contaminated. This has already resulted in serious environmental andhealth problems. It is likely that if there will be a water crisis in the future, it willnot come because of actual physicalscarcity of water, as many predict atpresent, but because of continuing ne-glect of proper wastewater management

practices. Continuation of the presenttrend will make available water sourcesincreasingly more contaminated, and willmake provision of clean water more andmore expensive, as well as more complexand difcult to manage.

Another major difference interms of water management betweendeveloped and developing countries isthat as the urban centers of the formerexpanded, their economies were growing

as well. Accordingly, it was possible for

them to harness nancial resources forefcient urban water and wastewatermanagement. For example, Japan couldinvest heavily in the conservation of urban water infrastructure after 1950because it was also concurrently expe-riencing rapid economic growth. Suchextensive infrastructure developmentand major improvements in management

practices meant that unaccounted for water in a megacity like Tokyo could bereduced from an estimated immediatepost-war proportion of 90% to about8% at present, one of the best in the world. Equally, cities like Tokyo couldinvest heavily to control urban ood-ing, which would have been difcultif Japan’s economy was not expanding during this period.

In contrast, the rates and extent of urbanization in developing Asia havegenerally far exceeded the capacitiesof the national and local governmentsto plan and manage the demographictransition process soundly, in terms of providing clean water and wastewatermanagement services efciently, equi-

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Figure 3: Population Increases inSelected Asian Megacities

Riverside park,Suzhou Creek,

People’s Republic of China

P o p u l a t i o n ( m i l l i o n s )



17

tably, and sustainably. The impacts of this inadequately managed urbanizationprocess are manifested in extensive air, water, land, and noise pollution, which ishaving, and will continue to have, majorimpacts on human health and the qual-ity of life of urban dwellers, as well as

imposing major costs on the respectiveeconomies.

Another urbanization-related prob-lem is the sudden, fast rate of verticalgrowth, especially in the central businessareas, often after decades, or evencenturies, of primarily horizontal expan-sion. This has invariably contributed toa sudden surge in population densitiesin these areas, with concomitant high water and energy requirements, as wellas generation of high waste (wastewaterand solid waste) loads per unit area. The urban centers have simply not beenable to cope successfully with such nearinstantaneous accelerating demandsfor water and wastewater managementservices. The problem is compounded

by the prevailing unsatisfactory watersupply and wastewater managementservices, absence of long-term planning,inadequate management of technicaland administrative capabilities, lack of investment funds, and high levels of

corruption. There are, however, signs of hope.

For example, in the PRC, the impor-tance of providing clean drinking waterand proper wastewater managementservices has started to receive increasing attention. Because the PRC’s economy has grown substantially in recent years,the country can afford to provide good water and wastewater managementservices to its urban citizens. Tariffs

have risen to meet costs and evenresulted in lowered industrial consump-tion, as illustrated in Box 4. Water and wastewater issues have become priority considerations for the country’s na-tional, regional, and local policy makers.It is likely that countries like the PRC will make signicant progress in urban water management during the coming decades.

Box 4: Tariff Reform in the People’s Republic of China

In the PRC, domestic water supply tariff rates have increased by126% in Zhangjiakou and 92% in Dalian since the beginningof 1998. Increases appear to have been well accepted by thepopulation and affordability does not appear to be an issue,although in Zhangjiakou, a cash rebate equivalent to consumptionof up to 5 cubic meters/month is paid twice yearly to certified poor households.

However, nondomestic consumption has clearly fallen inresponse to the price increases. In Dalian and Zhangjiakou, wherenondomestic tariff rates have risen respectively by 110–150% and

180–190% since the beginning of 1998, industrial consumersreduced average consumption by 30%, implying high price elastic-ity. Consumption by one large industrial user in Zhangjiakou fell by45%

Source: Asian Development Bank. 2002. Impact Evaluation Study on Water Supplyand Sanitation Projects in Selected Developing Member Countries. (IES REG2002-17). Manila. Website: http://www.adb.org/Documents/IES/Water/ies_reg_2002_17.pdf

Installing metered pipelines in Manila’s Alitaptapcommunity




18


Aging Population

A major factor that is still not being adequately considered in Asian countriesis the implication of an increasingly aging population on water-related issues. The age structure of the global popula-

tion, including in Asia, is undergoing rapid changes. For example, the numberof elderly people (65 and over) was 131million in 1950. This increased to 480million in 2006, and is estimated to reach1,465 million by 2050.

The issue of an increasingly elderly population has yet to receive adequate at-tention in Asia, except to a certain extentin Japan. And yet, it is likely to be animportant policy issue in nearly all Asian

countries during the next 3–4 decades.Countries like the PRC have at presenta major demographic window of op-portunity to restructure their economicdevelopment activities during the next2–3 decades, with a trained, experienced,and energetic workforce. However, after

2010, the number of elderly people willstart to increase quite rapidly, so muchso that by 2030, the PRC will have moreelderly people than the current popula-tion of the United States.

Increase in the number of elderly

people will be also an importantissue for the countries of South Asia(including India) and Southeast Asia. The steady aging of populations inEast (excluding the PRC) and South(excluding India) Asia, and the twomost populous Asian countries (PRCand India) are shown in Figure 4. Theproblem of increasing elderly popula-tions will be a complex one for Asiancountries to address. It will have major

social and economic implications, and will affect the water sector throughdirect and indirect pathways.

The relationship between watermanagement and an increasingly elderly population is completely unexploredterritory at present, not only for Asia

Rest stop whilecollecting water,

Afghanistan



19

but also the world as a whole. It is likely that they will affect each other in a variety of ways, a few of which can bediscussed in an anecdotal fashion.

First, in the context of rural andsemi-urban areas of many Asian devel-

oping countries, and in the absence of water and wastewater connections atthe household level, people are forcedto use communal land and water bodiesfor hygienic purposes. For elderly people, routine daily hygiene practicesbecome a chore, especially when physi-cal movements become difcult, or when they are sick. With improvementsin healthcare, education, and nutrition,people will be living for increasingly

longer periods. Absence of water and wastewater collection facilities at home will pose particular burdens on anincreasing elderly population.

Second, as the older generation of people retires from work, considerableknowledge, experience, and collectivememory will be increasingly lost. In acountry like Japan, many knowledgeableand experienced people will retire fromthe water sector during the next 5–10

years. The overall institutional knowledgeand experience levels in the water sectormay decline very suddenly, and thiscannot be readily replaced by youngerand new recruits. This has already beenidentied to be a serious issue in Japan.

Third, it is generally the young people who migrate to urban areas insearch of better standards of living. Thus, the percentages of young people in the rural areas will continueto decline, with attendant decline intheir economic, social, and culturalactivities. This will accelerate the break down of the extended family systems.Consequently, the family support that was available to the earlier generationsof elderly people will continue to

decline steadily. This will contribute toincreasing social and economic prob-lems in terms of deteriorating lifestylesof the elderly and social stress to theirfamily members who may have migratedto the urban areas.

Figure 4: Increasing Elderly Population in Asia

Note: South Asia excludes India, and East Asia excludes the PRC.Source: Varis, O. 2007. Water Resources and Development in Changing Asia.

Pumping water,Chengdu, People’sRepublic China

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Number persons 65and over (millions)

Southeast Asia

India

South Asia

PRC

East Asia



20


Finally, virtually no research hasbeen done on the water requirementsof the elderly and their interrelation-ships with water through varioussocial, economic, and cultural pathways. Not a single Asian institution is

conducting serious research in thesenew issues, but they need to be studieddiligently in the future.

Climate Change

It is now widely accepted that the globalclimate is changing. This is creating a new level of uncertainty in waterplanning and management processesbecause it is difcult to manage water

projects efciently without appropri-ate information on the likely futuredistribution of rainfall and temperaturepatterns over space and time. At thepresent state of knowledge, it is notpossible even to predict with any degreeof condence the annual averagechanges in rainfall and temperatureover a country as a whole, let alone forspecic areas considered for planning purposes. Furthermore, for water

planning and management, changes inannual average rainfalls and tempera-

tures over a country, or a large region,even if they could be predicted witha considerable degree of condence,are likely to be of very limited use.Unfortunately, it is still not possible topredict even such macro changes in the

climate parameters for the future. What is needed for efciency and

long-term water management is notannual average climatic information,but the extent of likely inter-annual andintra-annual variations. These are simply not possible to forecast at the presentstate of knowledge.

This, of course, is a global problem,and not strictly related to Asia. However,the problem is even more complex for

the Asian monsoon countries, wheremost of the annual rainfall occurs within60–100 hours, though these durationsare not consecutive. It will be a very difcult task to predict how the rainfallpatterns may change during these few hours of intense annual rains, whichmust be stored properly so that water isavailable for various uses over the entireyear, and between years, especially during prolonged drought periods.

The current consensus is thatclimate change is likely to increasethe frequency of extreme events likedroughts and oods. If so, future waterinfrastructure and management practices will have to be more robust and exible. Technologically and economically, it will not be an easy task to build in theappropriate exibility and robustness without signicant increases in ourcurrent knowledge base. This is unlikely to happen during the next 10, or even20, years because of the complexities of the climatic processes involved, whichare still not fully understood. Building exibility and robustness in the design,construction, and maintenance of waterinfrastructure will also mean higher

Climate change islikely to increasethe frequency of

extreme eventslike droughts and

oods. If so, waterinfrastructure

and managementpractices have to

be more robust andexible, which willnot be an easy task without signicant

increases in ourcurrent knowledge

base

Mega Dike or the FVR diken central Luzon being sup-ported by sand bags.



21

nancial costs, which may further strainthe economies of some countries.

Thus, climate change is likely tointroduce high levels of risks anduncertainties that the water professionsimply may not be able to handle with

any degree of condence, at least overthe near term. Superimposition of “normal” climatic uctuations with theexpected changes in climatic patterns will make efcient water planning andmanagement an exceedingly complexand difcult task during the post-2025period. This aspect needs urgent atten-tion and accelerated research from waterscientists and climatologists, especially inthe Asian monsoon counties, if serious

water-related stresses are to be avoidedin the future.

Technology

Like climate change, technological devel-opments are likely to introduce anotherset of uncertainties in water managementpractices and processes. However, unlikeclimate change, technological develop-ments are much more likely to bring

positive surprises in numerous aspects of water development and management.

The information and communica-tion revolutions have had radicalimpacts on water. Management andanalysis of water-related data havebecome far simpler economic andefcient processes than ever before inhuman history. Information storage,retrieval, and exchange have improvedexponentially in recent years. South-South knowledge transfer, which wasin its infancy some 25 years ago, hasnow come of age due to tremendousimprovements in information manage-ment and exponentially declining costs.In future, these developments are likely to advance even further.

Another area that will have a majorimpact on water-use patterns will bebiotechnological advances. Theseadvances will help in the developmentof pest-resistant and drought-resistantcrops, as well as crops that can be grownin marginal quality water, like saline

water. The net impacts of these likely developments may be that crops can begrown with less water, and also with theuse of marginal quality water.

Biotechnology is likely to help inmany other ways. For example, a new variety of rice under eld trial cansurvive for 3–4 weeks under ood water.Every year, hundreds of thousands of tons of rice crops are lost in Asia dueto prolonged submergence under ood water. These new varieties of rice crops will be able to withstand most ooding.

Similarly, biotechnology is making rapid advances in wastewater treatment.It is highly likely that there will befurther very substantial improvementsand breakthroughs in these areas during

In a rapidly changing Asia,tomorrow’s

water problemscan no longerbe identied, let

alone solved, wittoday’s knowledgand yesterday’sexperience. A

whole new mind will be needed toidentify and solvthe future watersupply and relateproblems


Water treatment plantmaintenance, Manila



22


the coming decades. These could haveprofound effects on water quality man-agement, which is now a very seriousproblem nearly all over developing Asia.

Another area where remarkableprogress has been made during the pastdecade is membrane technology. Withthe new generation of membranesand improved management practices,seawater desalination costs have comedown from US$1.50 to about US$0.50per cubic meter during the past decade.Because a large proportion of the Asianpopulation lives within 100 kilometersof a coast, provision of clean water for

domestic, commercial, and industrialneeds is no longer a physical constraint.

The water profession, in general, hasnot fully appreciated the implicationsof technological advances, which arelikely to affect water-use patterns andrequirements very signicantly. However,even when the new technologies becomeavailable and cost-effective, nationalcapacities to manage them properly needto be developed. Capacity building formanaging water resources in the coming years, in spite of considerable rhetoric,is still not receiving enough attention

in most Asian countries. It should berealized under a rapidly changing Asia,that tomorrow’s water problems can nolonger be identied, let alone solved,

with today’s knowledge and yesterday’sexperience. A whole new mindset willbe needed to identify and solve future water-related problems, which will re-quire substantial attention and additionalinvestments in capacity building.

All the existing and the likely future trends indicate that there willbe tremendous opportunities to solvethe future water problems of all Asiancountries. There will also be new sets of

constraints that have to be overcome. The opportunities and constraints may differ from country to country and even within a country. Equally, solutions may be location specic, as illustrated for thePRC in Box 5. Asian countries that focuson nding and implementing solutionsfor the water-related problems that they are likely to face in the future will makeremarkable progress in terms of watermanagement. Water should no longerbe a constraint for them to acceleratedeconomic development or poverty reduction.

Box 5: Location-specific Water Solutions in the People’s Republic of China

• In Beijing, a 30,000 square-meter housing complex with a rainwater recycling system wasconstructed to solve a water shortage problem.

• In the industrial southern city of Shenzhen, officials have introduced measures to useseawater to flush toilets to address water pollution.

• The Government is constructing a gigantic south-to-north diversion project to take water

from the Yangtze River to the dwindling Yellow River in order to solve the problems of drought in the north and flooding in the south.• In hilly Korla City, which gets whipped by sandstorms some 40 days every year, in Xinjiang

Province, the local government installed a drip line irrigation system to provide water tomore than 3,000 hectares of trees planted to address the problem of desertification.

Source: Asian Development Bank. Draft Countrywide Water Issues.



23

III. Urban Water Management

ater has many uses and its efcient

management covers a multitude of issues, including nearly all developmentsectors and most disciplines. Accordingly,it is not possible to cover all aspects of water in one single issue of the AWDO.In addition, as noted, Asia is a largeheterogeneous continent, where a set of issues of priority concern to one country may be of little interest to another. Thus,for the rst edition of AWDO, the mainfocus is on urban water management.

This is because in all Asian countries,the highest priority is invariably given todomestic water use. With accelerating urbanization in Asia, management of theentire water cycle in an urban context hasbecome a priority consideration. Equally,urban water management is at presentthe major component of the ADB loanportfolio for the water sector. Other waterissues, including rural water management, will be considered in subsequent AWDO

reports.Urban water management consists

of three fundamental, but interrelated,services. First is the provision to house-holds of clean water that is drinkable without additional treatment. Secondis the collection of wastewater from

all households and from industrial andcommercial sources, which thereafterrequires proper treatment and disposalin an environment-friendly way. Thirdis the efcient disposal of storm water,especially during the monsoon seasons.Often, only the rst, provision of drink-ing water, is considered, while the othertwo services receive inadequate attention.Furthermore, even for drinking watersupply, the focus tends to be on quantity;quality issues receive much less attention.

This boy enjoys cleandrinking water direct frthe tap in Phnom PenhCambodia

W

New Insights on Water Security in Asia: III. Urban Water Management



24


The importance of clean watersupply and wastewater managementbecame an important international issuefollowing the United Nations WaterConference, held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in March 1977. The Mar del

Plata conference was the only meeting ever held on water at a high politicallevel. This conference proposed thatthe decade of the 1980s be declaredas the International Water Supply andSanitation Decade, with the very ambi-tious objective of providing clean waterand sanitation to every human being by the end of 1990. The proposal wassubsequently approved unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly.

A retrospective analysis of thatdecade indicates that even though it didnot reach its goals, it was a remarkably successful event. Because of the prom-ulgation of the concept, hundreds of millions of people received acceleratedaccess to water supply and sanitation, which may not have happened otherwise.

Subsequently, the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs) incorpo-rated part of the objectives of the watersupply and sanitation decade. One of thegoals is to reduce by half the number of people not having access to clean water,

between 1990 and 2015. Improvementin sanitation is not a component of theMDGs. The Johannesburg Summit,in 2002, recommended an equivalentsanitation goal to reduce the number of people having no access to sanitation by half within the 1990–2015 period.

Considerable attention is now givenby national and international institutionsto the achievements of the MDG on water supply, and to the Johannesburg

target on sanitation. However, in much of the global discussions during recent years,the focus has been almost exclusively onachieving the numerical targets; the realobjectives and the philosophy behind thetwo targets are seldom discussed.

When the idea of the International Water Supply and Sanitation Decade wasrst proposed, its objective was that every-one should have access to clean water thatis drinkable without any additional treat-

ment. Similarly, it was expected that accessto sanitation, at least in the urban context,meant that wastewater would be collectedfrom households and then properly treatedfor safe disposal to the environment.

During the intervening years,somehow the philosophies behind thesegoals were lost, and the emphasis wastransferred to the achievement of thenumerical targets. For example, there hasbeen limited discussion on the quality of the water supplied to urban households. The discussion has almost exclusively focused on provision of a certain quan-tum of water, irrespective of quality interms of drinking. Consequently, in many Asian urban centers, each household, orblock of ats, now acts as a mini-utility.

Urban sewage canalin Thailand



25

Water of indifferent quality is collectedand stored in underground tanks and thenpumped to overhead tanks. This wateris then treated, sometimes even withmembranes, before it can be consumed. Where the main utilities supply water

intermittently (2–4 hours per day), themini-utilities at the household leveltransform it to a 24-hour water supply,followed by treatment, at high economiccosts. This certainly was not the thinking behind the supply goal of the water andsanitation decade.

A similar anomaly exists with thesanitation goal as well. Wastewater may now be collected from urban areas, but ismostly either not treated, or only receives

partial treatment, before being dis-charged to rivers, lakes, or oceans. Thus,the contamination and health problemsare simply shifted from the urban areas where the wastewater originates, toanother location where fewer peoplemay be affected. Because of this transferof the problem from one location toanother, rivers, lakes, and oceans inand around urban areas of developing Asian countries are now seriously con-

taminated. This is already having seriousadverse health, social, economic, andenvironmental impacts. If the presentunsatisfactory trends continue, in one ortwo decades, Asian developing countriesare likely to face a crisis on water quality management that is unprecedented inhuman history. Thus, it is absolutely essential that new wastewater treatmentfacilities are constructed at a massivescale and are properly maintained, sothat the water contamination problemscan be progressively reduced.

By diluting seriously the denitionof access to clean water and considering sanitation only in a very restricted sense,developing countries, including many in Asia, are mortgaging their future in terms

of water security. Such mindsets, includ-ing the tenor of the global water policy dialogue, have to change very signicantly.

The Asian situation is similar to therest of the developing world. Studiescarried out in Mexico by the Third

World Centre for Water Management forthe Inter-American Development Bank indicate that if instead of sanitation,access to proper wastewater managementis considered, only about 11% of thepopulation in Latin America was coveredin 1990. No similar study is availablefor Asia, but a ballpark estimate of the Asian developing countries is likely tobe somewhat similar to that of Latin America. If a similar approach is taken

as the MDG to formulate a target foraccess to wastewater treatment, it willmean that by 2015, Asian developing countries need to increase access toaround 50–60% of the population, aboutfour times that at present. This will notbe an easy task, and yet this must be thereal target for Asian countries.

Meeting that target is all the more worthwhile because investing in the water sector is investing in all the MDGs,

not just Target 10 and the Johannesburg target on sanitation. Safe water suppliesimmediately improve people’s healthand save them time, which they can useto study or improve their livelihoods,so they can earn more, eat more nutri-tiously, and enjoy more healthy lives.Improved sanitation protects the poorfrom socially and physically degrading surroundings, health risks, and exposureto dangerous environmental conditions.It is easy to see how $1 invested in the water sector turns into a benet equiva-lent to $6. All too often, though, theexpectation and analysis of benets from water supply and sanitation projects arelimited to the most common intendedresult—better health.

Many developingcountries willmortgage theirfuture in a decador two in termsof water securityby considering sanitation only ina very restrictedsense of collectiand transferring untreated sewagto another areathereby contaminating freshwatesources




26


Access to Clean Water No sane person will argue with thefact that all human beings should haveaccess to clean and drinkable waterand proper wastewater management. When people do not have access to

one or both of these services, thesocial, economic, and environmentalcosts are high, as is the overall costto the national economy. The mainissue is not the need for these services, which are now universally accepted,but rather how can these be providedto everyone cost-effectively, equitably,and promptly.

In many Asian developing countries,including most of South Asia, intermit-

tent water supply is at present the normrather than an exception. Yet, problemsassociated with an intermittent watersupply are well known. Among these areprovision of contaminated water, wast-age of water at all stages, need for biggerpipes in the network (thus higher eco-nomic cost) for water delivery in a shorttime, unreliable metering, high levels of corruption, and stress among the urban

poor to obtain their supply each day.For most Asian urban centers, at

least those with populations of onemillion or more, there is no reason why a continuous water supply of adrinkable quality cannot be provided.

The common excuse currently offeredfor the intermittent water supply isthat there is not enough water toensure a continuous supply. A quick review will indicate to any reasonably intelligent person that the professedreason has absolutely no scientic,technical, or economic validity. Forexample, supply may be intermittent,but during the short period the supply is available, most consumers withdraw

enough water, which is then storedat the household level, to provide acontinuous supply. If the supply werecontinuous, the households would usea similar amount of water, but spreadover the entire day. Also, in many Asianurban centers, more than 50% of waterthat enters the system never reaches itsdesignated consumers due to leakagesand poor management. In addition,urban areas like Malé now provide a

continuous drinkable water supply with an average household consump-tion of less than 10 cubic meters permonth. Yet, other Asian urban centersthat supply more than 2–3 times thisamount to each household claim thatthey do not have enough water to assurecontinuous supply!

The main reason for the currentunacceptable situation is widespreadmismanagement of the water utili-ties, as a result of which the utilitiescannot be run professionally. Thereare high levels of corruption and anapathetic and disenchanted public, which has now been conditioned toexpect only suboptimal results fromtheir utilities.

New water connectionfor a poor Vietnamese

household

The main reasonfor the prevailing

unacceptable situa-tion is widespread

mismanagement of water utilities, as aresult of which the

utilities cannot berun professionally



27

Water Pricing There are many reasons for the currentuntenable situation. Probably the mostprevalent one is the view that water is asocial good, and so should be providedfree or at highly subsidized prices. In

contrast, current studies indicate that without appropriate water pricing, thepresent vicious cycle of waste, inef-ciency, and lack of services to both therich and the poor will continue. Lack of income of the utilities due to inadequate water pricing will ensure that the watersystems are not properly maintained, andinvestment funds are not available forupdating technology, improving man-agement and technological capacities,

expanding the networks, and providing wastewater management. There is noquestion that the era when drinkable water could be provided to everyone freeor at highly subsidized rates on a long-term basis is now over.

What is needed is the exact corol-lary of the present vicious circle by itsreplacement with a virtuous circle. This will mean a system where the users pay for the services they want, the poor who

cannot pay receive targeted subsidies,utilities provide water supply and wastewater management services efciently and accountably, users cover the costs of the services, and public funds are usedfor public purposes.

This, of course, does not mean that we now have all the answers on how water should be priced for differentconsumers and for different uses. Somehard questions need to be asked andanswered. For example, how can it beensured that the poor have adequateaccess to reliable water and sanitationservices at affordable prices while therich are not subsidized? How, by whom,and through what processes should theseservices be managed so as to ensure

that the objectives of the provision of reliable services, economic efciency,universal access, and maximization of social welfare are met consistently andconcurrently? What type of institutionalframeworks and governance practices are

needed to improve the present delivery services substantially? How can all theserequirements be achieved efciently andquickly, and the means used be socially and politically acceptable to society asa whole? These and many other similarquestions need to be asked and answeredby every water utility, whether public orprivate, and by the government servicesthat regulate them.

What is becoming increasingly

evident is that there is no one “best”solution that would be applicable for all Asian countries. What is needed is theidentication of a community of “goodpractice” models from Asian urban cen-ters that have made remarkable progressin providing clean water and wastewatermanagement services in recent years. If such models were available, including an

It is impossible tcontinue with thtraditional idea oproviding requirdrinking water toeveryone free of

cost or at highlysubsidized rates

Manila Water’s “Mothemeters provide bulkbilling to slum-dwellingcommunities




28


assessment of the enabling environmentsneeded for such practices to function,those Asian urban centers searching foran applicable model could select the onethat best suits them. The selected modelthen has to be carefully adapted to suit

the specic local conditions.

Public-private Partnership

The discussion of private sectorinvolvement in water and wastewatermanagement has often become emo-tional, with hardened positions of bothproponents and opponents. The issue was strongly and emotionally debatedduring the Second World Water Forum

in The Hague in 2000, and the Third World Water Forum in Japan in 2003. The opponents of private sector involve-ment argued repeatedly and vehemently that water pricing is a “code word” forhanding over an essential public serviceto the private sector, which will thenmake unseemly prots at the cost of thepoor. During the Hague Forum, it was widely assumed that a few multinationalcorporations would “control” the water-

related services of the urban areas of the world. They would become so big andpowerful that the public regulators wouldnot be able to control them.

By 2003, when the Third World Water Forum was convened, the goalposts of the debate had shifted. While in2000, a few multinational corporations were increasing their outreach at a very rapid pace, a scant three years later, thesame companies were in retreat. Saddledby huge debts and signicant losses inmany concessions, and facing steeply declining share prices, most of them hadto curtail their expansion plans in thedeveloping world.

The focus of the discussion is slowly changing for the better, focusing on the

end societal goals: universal equitableprovision of clean water and wastewatermanagement at affordable and economicprices. The means—how the services areprovided and by whom—are less rel-evant, as long as the goals are achieved.

In this respect, past discussions havenot focused on the main issue. At present,only about 5–7% (estimates vary) of the global population receive water and wastewater services from the private sector.Under all foreseeable conditions, it ishighly unlikely that even 15% of the globalpopulation will receive such services fromthe private sector by 2025. Accordingly,if at least 85% of the global populationcontinues to receive these services from

the public sector, the main focus fordiscussion needs to be on how the existing public sector services can be improved very signicantly in the coming years.

It should be noted that two of themost efcient water-related serviceproviders in the world, Singapore and Tokyo, belong to the public sector.Equally, some of the worst performancesin Asian developing countries can befound in the public sector. Similarly, the

performance of the private sector hasnot been consistently better than thepublic sector. Some water managementconcessions given to private sectorshave been successful, but others havenot. Results have varied within a country (for example, a private concession inMorocco, Casablanca could be consid-ered a success but not that in Rabat), andsometimes even within the same met-ropolitan area (a private concession forone half of Manila has worked but thatin the other half has not), or over time (aprivate concession in Buenos Aires only worked initially).

Two other new factors are worthnoting. First is the emergence of new Asian private companies that have



29

developed enough expertise and techni-cal and nancial know how to considermanagement concessions within Asia,and later perhaps beyond Asia. Inthe electricity sector, a Singaporeanconcern is already managing the ser-

vices in Sydney. It is likely that privatesector companies and public-privateconsortiums from Asian countries,especially from India, the Philippines,and Singapore, may become increasingly active over the next decade.

The second is the increasing outsourcing of specic activities andservices that the local private sector canperform more efciently than the publicsector. These could be in a variety of

areas like information technology, meterreading and billing, leak detection andrepair, vehicle management, etc. Publicsector institutions like the Public UtilitiesBoard of Singapore and National WaterSupply and Drainage Board of Sri Lankaare already forging ahead with outsourc-ing, resulting in win-win situations.

In future, what is needed is an increas-ing dialogue between the public sector,the private sector, and civil society so that

a good mutually acceptable solution isformulated specically for the concernedurban center. The main objective shouldbe to provide continuous drinkable watersupply and adequate wastewater manage-ment to all the residents, cost-effectively,equitably, and promptly. How this can beaccomplished, and by whom, should bebest left to the urban centers concerned without external interference and dog-matic beliefs.

Wastewater ManagementIn general, wastewater managementhas received far lower priority in Asiandeveloping countries than has provisionof water supply. In addition, in most of

the locations where wastewater manage-ment has been considered, the main focushas been on the collection of wastewaterfrom urban areas for disposal elsewhere with limited, or even, no treatment. Asmore and more water is supplied to urban

areas, and concomitant progress is notmade on its collection, treatment, anddisposal practices, the overall water quality situation will deteriorate progressively.

A major problem facing Asiancountries is the provision of wastewatermanagement in slums and peri-urban

areas. Where individual or communaltoilets are not available, open defecationcreates health, social, and environmentalproblems. It is also against humandignity, especially for women, the elderly,and the sick. There is an increasing emphasis on controlling open defecationin these areas, but much more remains tobe done, not only in terms of expansionof hygienic toilets and their long-termmaintenance, but also collection andsafe disposal of grey water. Provision of toilets, although an essential and impor-tant improvement, is not enough; it mustbe an integral component of a functional wastewater management policy. This isan area where signicantly more progressis needed in Asian developing countries.

Checking water flowin Simao District,Yunnan Province,People’s Republic of

China




30


Rehabilitation of Urban Water and Wastewater Works

Much of the discussion during the recentdecades has been on the constructionand operation of new infrastructure for

water supply and wastewater manage-ment. There is no question that, withrapid urbanization, Asian countries haveto move more and more aggressively toconstruct and maintain new works.

However, there is another issue thatneeds urgent attention from all Asianpolicy makers. This is the rehabilitationand redevelopment of earlier water and wastewater infrastructure. Some of theinfrastructure is well over 50-years old, and

now not only past economic life, but alsotoo small in view of increasing populationdensity and higher per capita water use.

Even in Japan, many of the waterand wastewater facilities were builtduring the 1950s and 1960s and needto be progressively replaced with new designs and materials that comply withthe latest construction standards andplanning and design requirements. Theinvestments in new water and wastewater

infrastructure started to decline in Japanafter 2000, and now are less than whatis needed for rehabilitation. If this trendcontinues, more and more facilities thatshould be replaced will not be rehabili-tated. Consequently, they may be left todeteriorate. If so, they will require muchhigher investment later and may imposesome social and environmental costs onthe areas concerned.

While Japan did start to rehabilitateits structures seriously, the same cannotbe said for most Asian countries. In fact, very few have drawn up operationalplans as to how old infrastructure can berehabilitated, both in terms of geographi-cal coverage and over time. Even theextent of the problem is not known in

most countries, nor is it known what typeof investment funds and technical andmanagerial capacities will be needed fortheir timely and cost-effective renewal. This is an area that deserves more atten-tion from all Asian countries in the future.

Index of Drinking Water Adequacy (IDWA) for Asia The Human Development Index (HDI)is now a universally accepted indicatorfor overall national progress. It combinesone indicator each of health and educa-tion with per capita income. It enables what is lacking at the country level onthe three important dimensions of

human development to be ascertained.Inspired by the success of the HDI,

an attempt has been made to developan index of drinking water adequacy (IDWA). This has been applied to 23developing member countries (DMCs)of ADB, which together account for3.4 billion people (2004 estimates), andcovers nearly 99% of the populationof all 44 DMCs (see the Appendix).However, not enough information is

available from the other 21 DMCs fromnational and/or global sources to fully develop the IDWA.

It should be noted that the IDWA values indicated in the Appendix arepreliminary estimates. As more water-related data become available, and asthe quality of data improves, IDWA willimprove as well. Furthermore, with time,more methodological breakthroughsare likely, which will further advance thetechnical and intellectual foundations of the index. Detailed information on how the IDWA has been computed can befound in the CD-ROM included with the AWDO 2007 report.

IDWA has four important compo-nents: per capita estimates of renewable



31

internal freshwater resources, access,capacity to buy water, and per capita water use by the domestic sector. Tothese factors is added an indirect proxy of the quality of drinking water. This isbecause of the paucity of reliable water

quality data in nearly all the DMCs. Theproxy used for water quality is diarrhealdeaths per 100,000 people in 2000.

It should be noted that IDWA, in itspresent form, is not intended to provide areliable ranking of countries with regardto access to safe drinking water on asustained basis. Thus, the Index shouldnot be used for inter-country ranking.

Even in its current form, IDWAprovides a much better picture of the

national situations than do access-only indicators. In fact, each of the vecomponents could trigger a message,depending on the country-specicsituation. IDWA can assist develop-ment policy, programs, and projectsas a tool for assessment, monitoring,and benchmarking. For national policy makers and external support agencies, itcould also be an instrument to make agood case for additional improvements

and investments in drinking water sothat the index value can move higher,toward 100.

IDWA can also assist countries intargeting one or more of its componentsto move further up the scale. For example,Papua New Guinea has adequate waterresources, but not the wherewithal tosupply water, which could receive priority attention. Similarly, Malaysia has an edgeover the Republic of Korea in terms of resources and access, while the latter hasa high level of capacity that needs to beconverted into access, even in the absenceof adequate water resources. India and the

PRC have almost identical IDWA values,but there are stark differences in someof the components. The comparatively high use component in India has limitedimportance, especially when poor waterquality is considered. Box 6 shows how Singapore is providing excellent drinking water despite inadequate internal waterresources.

In its present stage, IDWA is limitedto water only; wastewater management isnot considered. Conceptually, IDWA canbe extended to incorporate wastewatermanagement, if reasonable data for atleast two additional indicators becomeavailable. These could be access tosanitation facilities and the extent of collection, treatment, and disposal of wastewater. Unfortunately, such dataare not presently available at nationallevels. A separate composite index of wastewater management can also beconsidered when water quality data inthe DMCs improve signicantly.

Box 6: Singapore’s Significant Success

Despite a lack of sufficient internal water resources (142 cubicmeters per capita in 2004 as per the World Development Indicators,2006), Singapore has done exceptionally well in regard to provi-sion of top quality drinking water to its population. In addition to

sourcing water from outside, it has developed not only desalination,but most importantly, what is known as “NEWater,” water of greatquality obtained from purification of recycled water.

In Singapore, the water supply is continuous and one can drink itstraight from the tap. The country scores 100 on each of four IDWA components (access, capacity, use, and quality). Yet, because of anindex value of 42 for the resource component, the IDWA based onfive components is 88, lower than the values for Malaysia and theRepublic of Korea (92 and 90, respectively).

Without the resource component, IDWAs for Malaysia and theRepublic of Korea are 94 and 97, respectively, less than the 100of Singapore. These differences are inevitable in any compositeindicator and that is precisely why the IDWA uses a small number

(five) of important components.




32


IV. Ways Forward

here is no single way forward for

Asian DMCs to ensure their future water security. Because of differing climatic, physical, social, economic,environmental, and institutional condi-tions, and because countries, and evenparts of countries, are at different stagesof development, there are simply nouniversal solutions. The Pacic Islands,for example, because of their gener-ally small size and fragility, have quitedifferent water problems to those of

larger nations, and have developed theirown regional action plan (Box 7). Inaddition, because the national, regional,and global conditions that affect waterare changing rapidly, there is also a timedimension to the solutions—what may have been a viable solution a decade agomay not be so a decade from now. Thismeans that water policies need to beupdated periodically so that they reectthe requirements of the time and theforeseeable future.

We can condently predict, on thebasis of current assessments of waterresources, expected water demands of the future, available technology, knowl-edge, and experience, that Asian DMCsshould not experience, or expect, a crisis

in the future because of physical scarcity

of water. This is a conclusion that ADBreached about a decade ago and there isno reason to change that nding. Whatis important is to realize that, irrespec-tive of the high level of rhetoric on thelooming global water crisis and likely water wars due to increasing water scar-city, the fact is that there is now enoughknowledge, technology, and expertiseavailable in Asia to solve all its existing and future water problems. Nevertheless,

some Asian DMCs will nd it moredifcult than others to ensure theirfuture water security. This, however, islikely to be the general situation not only for the water sector, but also for all otherdevelopment-related sectors in thosecountries.

If some of the Asian DMCs face a water crisis in the future, it will not bebecause of physical scarcity of water,but because of inadequate or inap-propriate water governance, including management practices, institutionalarrangements, and sociopolitical condi-tions, which now leave much to bedesired. Continuation of the presentstate of affairs will ensure that the water situations in Asian DMCs can

TIf some of the

Asian DMCs facea water crisis in

the future, it willnot be because of

physical scarcity of water, but because

of inadequateor inappropriate

water governance,including manage-

ment practices,institutional

arrangements,and sociopolitical

conditions



33

only improve slowly. Considering theexpected population growth, continuing urbanization, and increasing economicactivities, this may mean, at least for the water sector, having to run faster to stay in the same place. This cannot be the

preferred or acceptable solution.Major and fundamental changes in

water governance practices are neededin nearly all the Asian DMCs. Thereare many success stories in Asia of very signicant improvements in watergovernance. For example, during the past30 years, Singapore has made remarkablebreakthroughs in its governance prac-tices as a result of which it now has oneof the best, if not the best, water supply,

wastewater management, and overallcatchment management in the world. Inthe process, the Public Utilities Boardof Singapore has gained full condenceof the public in the level of servicesit consistently provides. Most of thistransition has taken place within abouttwo decades.

Similarly, the Phnom Penh Water Authority has managed to reduce itsunaccounted-for water from about 90%

in 1993 to about 8% at present, in spiteof difcult political, economic, andsocial conditions during this period. Theutility now provides drinkable watersupply continuously, and is fully autono-mous and nancially independent. It usesabsolutely no outsourcing to the privatesector, and within a decade has shown what can be achieved given good leader-ship—which has radically transformedits governance—and full political weightbehind that enlightened leadership.

It is now important for improving the performance of the water sectorthat a comprehensive search be madeto identify similar success stories fromall over Asia in areas like water supply, wastewater management, irrigation,

and hydropower development. Thesesuccesses need to be reviewed indepen-dently by knowledgeable and experienced water experts in terms of their veracity,long-term sustainability, and potentialreplicability in other parts of Asia. It willalso be essential to analyze the enabling environment of each success to see how and why it managed to make remarkableprogress, while most other Asian urbancenters did not. We need to understand what conditions were instrumental incatalyzing the process, which, in turn,ensured their success.

A set of successful Asian good prac-tice models is essential for South-Southknowledge and experience transfer in the

Box 7: Uniqueness of the Pacific Islands

The ability of the Pacific island countries to manage the water sector effectively is constrained by their small size, fragility, naturalvulnerability, and limited human and financial resource base. Thechallenges of sustainable water resources management in Pacificisland countries were categorized into three broad thematic areas at

the regional consultation on Water in Small Island Countries held inpreparation for the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto 2003. Thesewere:

1. Small island countries have uniquely fragile water resources dueto their small size; lack of natural storage and competing landuse; and vulnerability to natural and anthropogenic hazards,including drought, cyclones, and urban pollution.

2. Water service providers face challenging constraints to sustainingwater and wastewater provision due to the lack of both humanand financial resource bases, which restricts the availability of experienced staff and investment, and effectiveness of cost-recov-ery.

3. Water governance is highly complex due to specific sociopoliticaland cultural structures relating to traditional community, andtribal and inter-island practices, rights, and interests.

These issues have all been addressed through the development of the Pacific Regional Action Plan on Sustainable Water Management(Pacific RAP). Endorsed by 18 countries, 16 at Head of Statelevel, the Pacific RAP not only provides a coordinated and agreedapproach but has significantly driven water up the national andregional agenda.

Source: Fourth World Water Forum, Mexico. 2006. Regional Document: Asia-Pacific– Local Actions for a Global Change http://www.worldwaterforum4.org.mx/uploads/TBL_DOCS_107_35.pdf

New Insights on Water Security in Asia: IV. Ways Forward



34


context of the special monsoon climaticconditions of the region. A major reasonthat European and North Americanmodels have often not been successfulin Asia is not only differences in climaticconditions, but also in social, economic,

and environmental conditions, andinstitutional and legal frameworks. Thus,successful models from Asian monsoonareas are likely to be more replicableto other Asian DMCs than are modelsdirectly imported from Europe and North America. However, the Asian modelsshould only be applied after appropriatemodications for site-specic conditions.

Within this overall context andphilosophy, some suggestions follow

that are likely to be useful across most Asian DMCs for the way forward to water security. Nevertheless, note thatthe degrees of emphasis or priority givento each issue will vary from one country to another.

Improving Data Availability and Reliability

A major issue in preparing the AWDO

2007 has been the paucity of data on allaspects of water-related issues in AsianDMCs. Even when data were available,their reliability was often unknown. Theproblem was further compounded by thepresence of either inconsistent nationaldata sets or different data from variousnational sources on the same parameters,and/or signicant differences in many cases between national and internationaldata sets.

As a general rule, the Asian DMCshave better information, and also forlonger periods, on water quantity thanon water quality. Very limited, if any,information is available on the extent of water reuse and progress on recycling. This is an important gap because in all

the Asian DMCs, water quality manage-ment will become a priority nationalissue in the foreseeable future, andthere will be very signicant increases in water reuse through formal or informalmeans. Similarly, availability of data is

considerably better on hydrological,climatic, and similar physical factors thanon social, economic, and environmentalparameters. This situation appears to beimproving, but slowly.

It is simply not possible to plan,develop, and manage water resources inany country on a long-term sustainablebasis without the availability of reli-able data on physical as well as social,economic, and environmental factors.

Equally, it is not enough to collect datathat are necessary and reliable; data mustbe readily accessible to the people whoneed them, ranging from national andinternational organizations to researchand academic institutions, NGOs, andcivil society in general. If the status of water development and management isto be improved, it is essential that col-lection, quality, and management of datareceive signicantly higher priority in

all Asian DMCs than has been the caseto date. Data accessibility needs to besubstantially improved as well.

It should be noted that adequateand reliable data are needed at national,regional, and local levels, depending onthe specic water activities that need tobe carried out. Equally, without gooddata, we cannot monitor progress orperformance of policies, programs, orprojects adequately. Without monitoring, we cannot make denitive statementsabout the success of specic water-relatedactivities, or their cost-effectiveness andimpacts on people and the environment.

Major international institutions like ADB should encourage and assist DMCsto develop and maintain consistent data

It is simply notpossible to plan, de-

velop, and manage water resources in

any country on along-term sustain-able basis withoutthe availability of

reliable data onphysical as well associal, economic,

and environmentalfactors and com-posite indicators



35

for comparison of national data sets, allDMCs should use consistent denitionsand similar processes for collection,analysis, and interpretation. This is nothappening at present at any signicantor consistent scale, as a result of whichapples and oranges are often being ag-gregated and compared. Accordingly, thepresent situation often may not give re-

alistic views of water-related conditions,or help in formulating and implementing efcient policies, programs, and projects. To ensure efcient water planning andmanagement in the future, data avail-ability, quality, and access need to beimproved signicantly.

Forging Partnerships for Water Management

In the late 1990s, certain internationalinstitutions (not ADB) strongly and con-sistently promoted the participation of a few multinational corporations as thepanacea for solving water and wastewaterproblems of major urban centers of thedeveloping world. As noted earlier, by

sets across the entire Asian region. Suchan effort will unquestionably improvedata availability and accessibility, andmay contribute to the reduction, or evenelimination, of unreliable and conict-ing data sets. For example, when thebackground work was carried out for thepresent report, it was noted that nationaland international data sets on achieve-

ments toward the MDG on water supply were very different. Some examples aregiven in Table 3 above. National data setsoften tended to provide more optimisticpictures of progress. This may also bedue to data errors and/or denitionalproblems in the data. For example,access to water can be dened in differ-ent ways by different countries and/ornational and international institutions.Clear denitions of the data that arebeing collected are needed so that usersare aware of the data’s relevance, appro-priateness, comparability, and limitations.

For data aggregation at nationallevels, all local data sets must use identi-cal denitions of the parameters for which data are being collected. Equally,

Table 3: Proportions of Populations in Selected Countries Receiving Water and Sanitation Services (%)

Country Source and date Overallwater

Urban water Rural water Overall sanitation

Urban sanitation

Rural sanitation

Cambodia WHO/UNICEF (2004) 41 64 35 17 53 8

Ministry of Planning (2005) — 76 42 — 55 16

Fiji WHO/UNICEF (2004) 47 43 51 72 87 55FAO (2002)a 70 — — — — —

Sri Lanka WHO/UNICEF (2004) 79 98 74 91 98 89

ABDb (2000/1 data yr) 82 98 70 80 97 —

NWSDB (2005)c — 39.5 — — — —

Viet Nam WHO/UNICEF (2004) 85 99 80 61 92 50

Viet Nam Govt. (2004)d 70 — 58 — — 41

FAO = Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, UNICEF = United Nations Children’s Fund, WHO = World Health Organization.a Gateway to Land and Water Information, University of South Pacific, Samoa - Fiji National report.b Country Strategy and Program Update 2006–2008.c National Water Supply and Drainage Board Annual Report (NWSDB) (2005) – excludes some large municipalities, such as Kandy and Jaffna.

d Viet Nam Govt. (2004) Report on Viet Nam Development Goals.




36


provide the solution within a reason-able timeframe. A new paradigm of “business unusual” is needed that cansolve the region’s water and wastewaterproblems, preferably within a decade, ina cost-effective and equitable manner.

This will require the formation of anew form of partnership, differentfrom the earlier models, with three dis-tinct partners—government, corporate(public or private), and society—eachhaving very specic responsibilities for which it should be held accountable; letus call this the GCS model.

The tasks of government in thistripartite relationship could include for-mulation of an overall framework within

which the three parties can operate, andthe promulgation of regulatory regimesfor the service providers. This wouldinclude such issues as determining thelevels of service, identifying the bene-ciaries, stipulating progress to be madeover time in terms of extending servicecoverage and beneciaries to be reached,establishing implementable policies for water pricing and cost recovery, ensuring

the early 2000s, it was already generally recognized that these corporations werenot going to deliver services as expectedin terms of bringing new investments,connections for the poor, and signi-cantly improved management practices.

All these and other advantages wereexpected to make service delivery ef-cient, reliable, economic, and equitable,compared to the conditions that wereprevalent under public sector utility man-agement. The multinational corporationsconcerned also soon realized that they were not going to make a very attractivereturn for their shareholders for the next2–3 decades from providing water and wastewater management services.

This form of public-privatepartnership did not work as well oras consistently as its proponents hadanticipated. It is now also fully acceptedby all the concerned parties that theexisting water supply and wastewatermanagement gap between what isneeded and what is available at pres-ent in the Asian DMCs, is huge, and“business as usual” will not be able to

A new paradigmof “business

unusual” is neededthat can solve

the region’s waterand wastewater

problems, in acost-effective andequitable manner. This will require

the formationof a new formof partnership,

different from theearlier models,

with three distinctpartners—

government,corporate (public

or private), andsociety

Box 8: Nonprofit Technical Cooperation Activities by Japanese Water Operators

Source: Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

The reconstruction process of water services inCambodia—a country devastated under the Pol Potregime and more than one decade of civil war thereaf-ter—started with the development of a master plan byJapan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 1993.The Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) recov-ered the capacity of water supply system from 65,000cubic meters per day in 1993 to 235,000 cubic metersper day in 2003 with the harmonized assistance from theJapanese Government, Asian Development Bank, FrenchGovernment, and World Bank.

Capacity development for operation and maintenance(O&M) was required to secure the sustainability of thereconstructed facilities. JICA implemented a technicalcooperation project for the capacity building of PPWSA from 2003 to 2006. The aims of the project were (1) toimprove the O&M capacity of water supply facilities, and

(2) to improve a staff training system for the water supplysystem in Cambodia.

Engineers from the water operators of Kitakyusyu andYokohama cities in Japan provided technical transfer toPPWSA engineers on the ground. These activities wereconducted on a nonprofit basis, not a commercial one.JICA provided only actual costs required, such as traveland equipment. Three long-term engineers for 3 yearsand 32 short-term engineers in total worked in the Project.PPWSA obtained substantial high-level O&M capacityfollowing completion of the Project.

Regarding the waterworks of provincial cities inCambodia, rehabilitation works and capacity developmentare on the way. PPWSA, with the Ministry of Industry, Mineand Energy, is preparing the mechanism to disseminateits experiences of management of the water system to theprovinces.



37

proper standards of construction, andformulating transparent and enforce-able legal procedures for awarding andmanaging contracts and resolution of potential conicts.

The corporate partner could be

public or private. If public, it shouldbe an autonomous and accountablegovernment entity with operationaland nancial autonomy and free frompolitical and bureaucratic interference.In fact, many water utilities in AsianDMCs now fail to function efciently because of the “excess baggage” they carry in terms of unnecessary rules,regulations, administrative require-ments, and consistent bureaucratic

and political interference. Under theexisting conditions, it would indeed be amiracle if a utility succeeds in providing reliable levels of services efciently andequitably to all on a sustainable basis. The responsibilities of the corporatepartner must include high levels of consumer satisfaction and it should befully accountable to its customers. ThePhnom Penh Water Supply Authority isone such autonomous, public corporate

partner; it has already revolutionizedthe water supply of that city. This typeof model needs further considerationfor possible use by other Asian DMCs.Box 8 shows how Phnom Penh WaterSupply Authority improved its systemby forging harmonized partnerships with the Japanese Government, ADB,the French Government, and WorldBank.

The corporate partner could equally be a private company or a public sectorcompany from another country oranother region of the same country.However, whether it is a public or aprivate entity, it will have to abide by thesame set of requirements and obliga-tions. Each urban center should select

which corporate model would best suitits needs, opportunities, and constraints,and should be determined without any preconceived dogma or hidden agenda.

The third partner should be civil

society, which, as a general rule, needsto move away from its current apatheticresponse to poor and unacceptablelevels of water and wastewater servicedelivery. Consumers will have to pay a fair price for receiving water and wastewater services, so they need to beencouraged to demand good quality service. Here there is a need to exploreboth social and for-prot marketing opportunities to drive up demand (Box9). The responsible civil society organiza-tions should be empowered to demandnecessary reforms, ensure that the urbanpoor receive the expected benets, andcomplain vociferously when the systemdoes not provide the stipulated levels of services.

Box 9: Business Model for Sanitation

Today’s market for sanitation is dysfunctional, mainly due to muteddemand and low priority among individuals and politicians. Lowcapacities in appropriate technologies and the lack of (freely)available sustainable sanitation designs for mass productionprevent an efficient market for sanitation from emerging. There

is a lack of incentives for innovation in technology and productdesign for sanitation. Despite the wonderful opportunities of 2.6billion potential buyers, businesspersons still neglect the low-incomesanitation market, due to a lack of awareness, localized demand,and established distribution channels.

To remedy this situation, we need to demonstrate that the low-income sanitation market is a profitable opportunity for both socialand for-profit investors. We need to eventually make people want tobuy sanitation. We must not underestimate the power of emotionalappeal of the toilet as a status symbol and we need to fund thecreation of a trend to drive the poor to demand sanitation throughpeer pressure.

With a coordinated approach across the water and sanitation

community, identification of best practices, innovation, good marketinfrastructure, and driving prices down through all means continu-ously, we can create demand that will be viable for vendors tosupply in large volume.

Source: Sim, J., Director/Founder of World Toilet Organization, Singapore




38


The GCS model, if implementedproperly, has the potential to improve water and wastewater services in urbancenters of many Asian DMCs. Themodel is also very exible. Each urbancenter can devise its own model that

will best suit its specic social, eco-nomic, institutional, and environmentalconditions and constraints. The selec-tion and adoption of the nal modelshould come after a thorough review of the community of good practicemodels available from the Asian mon-soon countries, an issue that has beendiscussed earlier.

Improving Water Quality

Water quality management has mostly been a neglected issue in Asian DMCs. The health costs and social impacts arelikely to be substantial at present. While

these have not been carefully assessedfor the region, the annual economic costis likely to be billions of dollars. If thepresent trend continues, the costs arelikely to escalate signicantly over thecoming years.

Institutional responsibilities for waterquality management are highly fragmentedat present. Equally, most institutionsare not geared to manage water quality,let alone address the broader problems

of the future. Accordingly, institutionalstrengthening and restructuring, inter-institutional coordination, and capacity building in technical, administrative, andmanagerial aspects are urgent require-ments, as are signicant improvementsin the formulation and implementationof legal and regulatory regimes, andtransparency and non-corruptibility of the associated administrative and manage-ment processes.

While economic instruments (bulk water charges, water rights, tradablepermits, polluter-pays-principle, incen-tives when appropriate, etc.) can helpthe region in improving the current water quality conditions, a combinationof economic instruments and a com-mand-and-control system is likely toprove useful.

Conventional funds available for investments in controlling water pollutionare now grossly inadequate. In addition,not all the funds available are being used efciently. Considering the massiveadditional funding needed to manage water quality because of past neglect, itis highly unlikely that the public sectorcan generate the needed investment

A man drinks clean water in front of Cambodia’s

National Assembly inPhnom Penh



39

funds. Funding that can be generatedfrom private sector and multilateral andbilateral agencies will be useful, but eventhis is unlikely to be enough. New formsof funding mechanisms are needed, andneed to be available on a sustained basis

for a reasonable period of time. Loansfor longer periods, like 40-year loans thatare currently provided by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, should beconsidered by other funding agencies.

In spite of the present deteriorating water quality in many Asian DMCs,the issue is not receiving the politicalpriority and social attention it deservesat national and local levels. Overallgovernance, including political, legal,

and institutional conditions, has oftencontributed to an environment that hasnot encouraged new investments. Thissituation needs to be changed.

Water quality management is muchbroader than simply construction andoperation of wastewater treatmentplants. A more comprehensive perspec-tive is essential, which should considerfactors like formulation and implementa-tion of national water policies within

which quality should be a priority issue,regular monitoring and evaluation of water quality, presence of appropriateand functional legal and institutionalframeworks, and a well-structured capac-ity-building program for all levels.

Enhancing Capacity Development

Capacity development is an importantrequirement for Asian DMCs to ensure water security in the coming years.Unfortunately, even though the rhetoricon capacity development has been quiteaudible in recent years, appropriatecapacity development that specically addresses the needs of any one country

has not received systematic and continu-ous attention. The attempts have oftenbeen ad hoc, have not addressed thepriority areas that can really make adifference, and have generally built upcapacities that are more appropriate for

European and North American temper-ate climate conditions than for tropicaland subtropical Asian conditions. Thus,instead of being a part of the solution,most of these programs have producedshort-term results of a marginal nature.

Educational and training programsfor water professionals need reviewing.Often they are academic and are notsolution or application oriented. Theacademic programs need to be restruc-

tured if they are to solve the problemsof the future, rather than the problemsof the past. In other words, much of thecurrent efforts for capacity developmentneed a thorough review.

In this connection, it is useful to look at past Japanese efforts to build watermanagement capacities. Japan investednearly 70 cents for each dollar spenton infrastructure development in theeducation sector. In contrast, only about

7 cents are spent on capacity develop-ment in the water sector for each dollarspent on infrastructure development. The Asia and Pacic region recom-mended boosting the level of investmentfor capacity development during theFourth World Water Forum. However,the world forums invariably produce aplethora of recommendations, very few of which are implemented. The recom-mendation on capacity building has beenno different to this general rule. Yet,capacity development must receive muchhigher priority from both national waterauthorities and external support agencies.Equally, the external support agenciesmust ensure that the types of capacity development activities they support will




40


actually help to improve substantially the water management practices of Asian DMCs, where conditions aredifferent from those in the industrializedcountries. Further, the results must besustainable over the long term.

Looking to the Future

As noted earlier, the future water-relatedissues of the Asian DMCs are likely tobe quite different from those in the past. While historical knowledge is alwaysuseful, solving the water problems of the future will require additional skills,innovative approaches, and new mind-sets. It will also require a more holistic

approach that can successfully coor-dinate the energy, food, environment,and industrial policies of a nation, all of which have intimate linkages to water.Each will affect the others and, in turn,be affected by the others. Policies in allthese areas will similarly be inuenced

by external forces like demographictransitions, advances in technology andcommunication, globalization, free trade,and increasing social activism.

All these factors will make future water management in Asia a far more

complex task than ever before. It willbe a formidable challenge, but onethat must and can be met because theknowledge, experience, and technol-ogy to solve the problems in a timely manner already exist within Asia, not inone location but within the region as a whole. A synergistic net needs to be castto identify and collect all the successfulattempts for possible replication in otherparts of Asia.

One is reminded of WilliamShakespeare’s immortal words as to how the water future of the Asian DMCs willdevelop:

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our starsBut in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Solving the water problems of the future will require additional skills andcapacity, innovative approaches, and new mindsets. It will also require amore holistic approach that can successfully coordinate the energy, food,environment, and industrial policies of a nation, all of which have directlinkages to water



41

Appendix

IDWA: Index of Drinking Water Adequacy

he AWDO 2007 proposes a new

Index of Drinking Water Adequacy

(IDWA). IDWA is an average of ve

component indicators on most relevant

variables, fully explained in the paper

by Bhanoji Rao: (1) per capita internal

renewable fresh water resources;1 (2)

percent of population with generalaccess to a sustainable “improved”

water source, which is one of the

target indicators in the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs); (3) na-

tional capacity to purchase water, based

on the proxy measure of per capita

gross domestic product in purchasing

power parity dollars (PPP $); (4) the

extent of use of water by the domestic

sector on a per capita basis measured

against a norm; and (5) diarrheal deaths

per 100,000 people used as an indirect

measure of water quality. IDWA not

only allows cross-country comparisons,

but also helps in ascertaining which

component is weak in a particular

country, requiring priority attention.

Index computation methodology is

essentially the same as the one adopted

to compute the Water Poverty Index

(WPI), which was the method used

to compute the Human Development

Index (HDI) over the years. The

method simply involves taking the vari-

able, for example resource per capita, R j

for country j, and then estimating the

percentage as follows:

Index of Drinking Water Adequacy (IDWA)

IDWA

Resources

Access

Capacity

Quality

Use

T

Appendix: The Index of Drinking Water Adequacy



42


-56 77 24 37 14

-7 88 37 31 2

-58 100 22 37 57

-52 83 72 26 49

-22 56 67 33 53

-31 75 87 25 32

0 49 88 36 21

-35 66 73 55 96

31 81 51 34 66

13 80 71 49 84

56 60 82 46 57

16 65 71 64 92

100 78 47 18 67

93 48 64 31 77

100 54 77 31 98

32 68 99 73 93

100 77 71 31 87

100 58 71 52 89

50 72 82 69 98

100 71 81 42 87

100 73 81 59 84

100 61 90 100 99

100 85 100 79 99

Indicator for country “j”=

[ (R j−R min )/(R max−R min ) ]×100

The index is computed for 2004 for 23developing member countries (DMCs)of the Asian Development Bank (ADB),accounting for 99% of the total popula-tion of all 44 DMCs. The IDWA valuesof the 23 DMCs are given above todemonstrate the use and implications of the new index.

Ranking based on IDWA

Comparing Malaysia and theRepublic of Korea, the latter has arelative paucity of water resources andnot quite 100% access. It has capacity to purchase/exploit water resources at amuch higher level than Malaysia, but it isnot translated into full access, and henceits IDWA is slightly lower.

The People’s Republic of China(PRC) and India have about the sameIDWA, but some of the component

Malaysia 92

Korea, Rep. Of 90

Philippines 80

Viet Nam 76

Kazakhstan 74

Azerbaijan 74

Kyrgyz Republic 73

Thailand 73

Uzbekistan 72

Turkmenistan 63

Tajikistan 62

PRC 61

India 60

Indonesia 59

Mongolia 53

Sri Lanka 51

Pakistan 39

Nepal 38

Bangladesh 37

Myanmar 35

Papua New Guinea 32

Lao PDR 30

Cambodia 19

IDWA Use Resource Access Capacity Quality



43

1. Internal renewable water resources (IRWR) comprise the average annual flow of rivers and recharge of ground-water (aquifers) generated from endogenous (internal) precipitation. Natural incoming flows originating outside acountry’s borders are not included. Estimates of IRWR per capita are from the World Bank’s WDI 2006 and theyrefer to 2004.

differences are glaring. The PRC haslower access, despite higher economiccapacity. It has constrained use, but highquality. India enjoys better access andhigher use but low quality.

Bangladesh and Myanmar have

IDWA values on the low side, with thetwo countries respectively occupying the 19th and 20th positions. Both failespecially on use, wherein the level

is way below the norms adopted.Myanmar has relatively higher level of resources that have helped to step upaccess to a relatively high level. Thecountry, however, fails on purchasing power and quality.

Cambodia has the lowest IDWAdespite a fairly high level of resources. Ithas to step up “investments” to move upon all other components.

Appendix: The Index of Drinking Water Adequacy

Endnote



44


Box A1.1: Country Paper Limitations and FutureDevelopment Options

• The country papers are based on a literature search of materialsand information in the public domain.

• References and data refer to different dates due to availablesource materials. Consistency, for example using MillenniumDevelopment Goals progress data, is preferable to using latestdata that might not be authoritative or be based on the samedefinition.

• The main focus is on water supply and sanitation (WSS), withwater resources and other subsectors covered generally. Futureversions could update WSS data and consider focus on water resources, irrigation, conservation, or pollution control, etc.

• There is a need for much more comprehensive data on utilities,especially on sanitation and wastewater treatment, and proposedfuture investments, e.g., What is needed to achieve the goals?What proportion of gross domestic product is this? What is beingallocated? How can the gap be filled? What gives the best returnfor every dollar invested?

Annex 1

Country Papers Summary

he country papers of the Asian Water

Development Outlook (AWDO) 2007 provide a brief overview of 12 selectedcountries, covering the status and perfor-mance of the water sector, the key issuesand challenges to be addressed, and an

indication of the way forward. Data andbackground information for each coun-try have been obtained primarily frompublished sources in the public domain,additional data collection and analysisbeing outside the scope of the literaturesearch undertaken. Achievement of the

country paper goals has been constrainedby limited availability of data and pub-lished information on the current status,as well as detailed future plans.

Some of the limitations of thecountry papers are discussed in Box A1.1, with suggestions made concerning the possible direction of future revisions.

One of the main purposes of the AWDO 2007 is to focus the attentionof national leaders and key decisionmakers on the need to increase invest-ments in the water sector if the MDGtargets are to be achieved by 2015. Although some countries have madegood progress, others need to makedramatic improvements as can be seenfrom Table A1.1. Nearly half of the

T



46


present MDG target denitions do notcover all necessary quantity and quality interventions, such as treatment of wastewater from improved sanitation.

Some of the main issues (and solu-tions) from the country papers are listed

in Box A1.2.Key messages from the country

papers are:

● There is need for better quality andmore comprehensive data, especially from water utilities.

● Policy development is not the issue;the need is for implementation andenforcement of existing policies andlegislation. This can only be achieved

if there is accountability and a strong regulation/monitoring regime inplace.

● Many governments need todramatically increase water sectorinvestments, especially in sanitation. As a general guide, the aim shouldbe to spend a minimum of 1% of gross domestic product on the watersector.

Box A1.2: Common Issues (and some solutions) in SelectedCountries

Too many players in thesector with poor clarity of responsibilities

Simplify and reform the sector

Poor implementation of poli-

cies, laws, and regulations

Enforce firmly and make people

accountable regardless of whether private or public sector

Water resources poorlymanaged

Implement integrated water resource management on basincatchment area basis over long-term horizons, say 20 years

Water resources being usedinefficiently

Improve poor irrigation practices

Water resource contamina-tion from deforestation,mine discharges, untreatedmunicipal and industrial ef-fluents, agricultural fertilizer and pesticide run-off, salineirrigation drainage

Enforce pollution control measures

Poor service levels, pos-sibly even where coveragereasonable

Increase supply hours, improvequality at the tap, etc.

High water connection feesprevent the urban poor frombeing connected

Give free connections and recover costs from tariff

Low tariffs do not reflect thetrue service cost for sustain-

ability

Recover at least operating andmaintenance costs initially

Low levels of municipal andindustrial effluent treatment

Construct more treatment plantsand improve operational perfor-mance

Limited institutional andmanagerial capacity in somedepartments and utilities

Increase institutional and humanresources capacity

Conflicts of interest, e.g.,where provincial govern-ments set water tariffs andown utilities

Establish independent or highlyrespected regulator

Poor water sector gover-

nance

Make utilities autonomous—no

political interference, ring-fenceutility revenues, etc.

Consumers unaware of the“true” value and scarcity of water

Sensitize and educate, run publicawareness campaigns



47

Annex 2

Annotated List of Discussion Papers

I. Access to Drinking Water andSanitation in Asia: Indicators andImplications (Bhanoji Rao)

The inadequacies of existing indicatorsin the sector are discussed and a new measure of progress, the Index of Drinking Water Adequacy (IDWA) is

described and values determined for 23countries. This composite drinking waterindicator is an average of ve compo-nents: access, capacity, quality, resources,and use. The individual components canbe used to indicate directions for policy,program, and project actions. The IDWAcan be used to ne-tune MillenniumDevelopment Goal targets on water andcan be expanded, depending on dataavailability, to include other water andsanitation parameters. The lack of ac-curacy and consistency of national datain many countries is a stumbling block atpresent.

II. Water Resources and Development inChanging Asia (Olli Varis)

This paper outlines the major inter-sectoral problems associated with water—population growth and aging,the economic and social transitionin developing countries, and issues

related to energy, food production, theenvironment, and climate variation andchange. The need for more food willrequire greater efciency of soil and water use. Poverty reduction efforts will be important in working againstfurther degradation of water resourcesand the environment by the poor. Jointmanagement of rivers and aquifers is of crucial importance in most parts of Asiabecause the bulk of the region’s popula-tion lives in river basins that includemore than one state.

Annex 2:Annotated List of Discussion Papers



49

Acknowledgments

The Asian Water Development Outlook

(AWDO) 2007 was prepared by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) andfunded by the RETA 6388: Supporting the Asia-Pacic Water Forum (APWF),nanced by the Japan Special Fund,funded by the Government of Japan.

K. E. Seetharam (task manager)in the Energy, Transport, and WaterDivision of the Regional Sustainableand Development Department (RSDD)in ADB coordinated the productionof AWDO under the guidance of WooChong Um (Director), with ad-ministrative and research support fromMaria Angelica Rongavilla, Vergel Latay,Eileen Santos, and Audrey Esteban.

The valuable contributions by the AWDO team of experts, ADB staff,and external experts are sincerely acknowledged. The team of expertscomprised Asit Biswas (team leader),Bhanoji Rao, Olli Varis, Geoff Bridges, Arthur McIntosh, Geoff Wright, andSurampalli Rao, supported by Indrajit

Banerjee, Stephen Logan, KalingaSeneviratne (Asian Media Informationand Communication Centre), and Jay Maclean.

Overall guidance and commentsand inputs on the initial drafts of the report were provided by several

experts: ADB: Liqun Jin, Bindu Lohani,Shyam Bajpai, Arjun Thapan, WouterLincklaen Arriens, Amy Leung, WilliamGreene, Hun Kim, Katsuji, Matsunami,Omana Nair, Anand Chiplunkar,Rudolf Frauendorfer, and DanielCooney; APWF Governing Council: Tommy Koh, Ravi Narayanan and Erna Witoelar; APWF partner institutions: Thierry Facon (Food and AgricultureOrganization Regional Ofce for Asia and the Pacic), Vadim Sokolov (Global Water Partnership Caucasus andCentral Asia), Sastry Ramachandrula(Global Water Partnership South Asia),Kate Lazarus (International Union forConservation of Nature and NaturalResources), Tarek Merabtene and



50


Kuniyoshi Takeuchi (InternationalCentre for Water Hazard and Risk Management), Satoru Kurosawa (JapanBank for International Cooperation),Hideaki Oda, Kenichi Tsukahara, Taeko Yokota and Noriko Yamaguchi (Japan

Water Forum), IL-Pyo Hong and MatildaPark (Korea Water Forum), Khoo Teng Chye, Chan Yoon Kum, Han Tong Ng, Michael Toh, and Meng Kin Wong (Public Utilities Board, Singapore), Aurora Villaluna (Streams of Knowledge), LeHuu Ti (United Nations Economic andSocial Commission for Asia and thePacic), Andre Dzikus (United NationsHuman Settlements Programme),Hubert Gijzen and Toshihiro Sonoda

(United Nations Educational, Scientic,Cultural Organization), and Jan Luijendijk (UNESCO-IHE Institute for WaterEducation).

Comments and inputs on the draftcountry papers and other discussionpapers for the AWDO CD ROM wereprovided by ADB regional departmentexperts: Tomoo Ueda, Januar Hakim,Paul van Klaveren, Sanjay Penjor,Stephen Blaik, Sekhar Bonu, Shakeel

Khan, Tatiana Gallego-Lizon, Hubert Jenny, Ian William Makin, WalterKolkma, Rana Hasan and GunturSugiyarto; ADB resident missionofcers: Hua Du, Md. Raqul Islam, Arjun Goswami, Raikhan Sabirova,Paul Van Im, Toru Shibuichi, YaozhouZhou, Wang Jianguo, Zhiming Niu,David Dole, Sirpa Jarvenpaa, RichardPhelps, Tiniarogo Mere Seniloli, PeterFedon, Raza Farrukh, Richard W. A. Vokes, Mookiah Thiruchelvam, AyumiKonishi, Hoang Nhat Dhong, Ho LePhong, Eri Honda, Stephen Wermert, Asem Chakenova, Edgar Cua, H.S.Soewartono, Siti Hasanah, ThomasCrouch, Jia Xinning and Joven Balbosa;CH2M Hill World: Nancy Barnes

and Greg Turner; Ministry of Health,Labor and Welfare, Japan: Sombo Yamamura; Japan Bank for InternationalCooperation: Satoru Kurosawa; JapanInternational Cooperation Agency: MikioIshiwatari; and Water Resources and

Environmental Research Center, Korea: Jeongkon Kim.

Thanks are due to those who lenttheir time and expertise and providedinputs during the Experts’ ConsultationMeeting on AWDO at the Water Hubin Singapore on 23 August 2007:Government country representatives:M. Inamul Haque (Bangladesh),Basah Hernowo (Indonesia), MaoSaray and Chea Visoth (Cambodia),

Cama Tuiloma (Fiji), M. Zahir ShahMohmand (Pakistan), Li Yuanyuan(People’s Republic of China), Nguyen Tuan Quang (Viet Nam); waterchampions: Ramon Alikpala, Apichart Anukalarmphai, Antonino Aquino,Khondaker Azharul Haq, RicardoMacabebe, Joe Madiath and M. IrfanShahzad ; APWF Governing Council:Ravi Narayanan and Erna Witoelar; APWF partner institutions: Siswoko

Sastrodihardjo (Global Water PartnershipSoutheast Asia), Shinichi Masuda (JapanInternational Cooperation Agency), YojiMatsui (Japan Water Works Association),Genichiro Tsukada (Ministry of Health,Labor and Welfare, Japan), Khoo Teng Chye, Ng Han Tong, Ridzuan Ismail andSivaraman Arasu (Public Utilities Board,Singapore), Chen Lin (Public Utility Research Center, University of Florida),Kulwant Singh (United Nations HumanSettlements Programme), Terrence Thompson (World Health Organization);Greg Turner (CH2M Hill World), Jack Sim (World Toilet Organization,Singapore), Eduardo Aralal (Lee Kwan Yew School, Singapore), and Charles Vorosmarty (Institute for the Study of



51

Earth, Oceans and Space, University of New Hampshire).

Special thanks are due to Ann Quon,Omana Nair, Jason Rush, Daniel Cooney,Nicholas Eric Vonklock, Graham JamesDwyer and Raul del Rosario who pro-

vided comments on the AWDO mediastrategy; Ma. Priscila del Rosario, CynthiaHidalgo and Muriel Ordoñez whoprovided publishing and printing advice; Yun Samean who provided the coverimage for the report; Richard Abrina,Stephen Blaik, Paul Van Im, Hoang

Nhat Po, Raza Farrukh, Md. RaqulIslam, Ayumi Konishi, Raikhan Sabirova, Antonio de Vera, Ramon Alikpala,Kalinga Seneviratne, Eric Sales, IanGill, Paul Del Rosario and Yun Samean who provided interior images for the

report; Prof. Maria Mercedes Robles who moderated the media event during the Experts’ Consultation Meeting;Narciso Prudente who contributed tothe technical inputs for the country water sector prole, key performanceindicators, and key issues.

Acknowledgments



Asian Water Development Outlook (AWDO) 2007 AWDO is a new publication commissioned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in view of the increasing importance of water in the future development scenarios of the Asia and Pacificregion. In recent years, water has steadily gravitated toward the top of the national agendasof ADB’s developing member countries. This is a desirable development because water isan essential requirement for human and ecosystems survival. In addition, water is a criticalcomponent for most development needs. Without adequate quantity and quality of water, it

will not be possible to ensure food, energy, or environmental security of nations. AWDO is aimed at Asian and Pacific leaders and policy makers and those interestedin understanding the complexities and dimensions of the current and the future water problems, and how these can be addressed successfully in policy terms. Its main objective isto raise awareness of water-related issues and to stimulate an informed debate on how bestto manage Asia’s water future. These are important and complex issues, and their timely management can contribute to the achievement of all the water-associated MillenniumDevelopment Goals and beyond.

AWDO 2007 is ADB’s first attempt to make a forward-looking assessment of the possible water future for the most populous region of the world. It is now increasingly beingrecognized that water is likely to be a major critical resource issue of the world, and that thesocial, economic, and environmental future of Asia is likely to depend on how efficiently andequitably this resource will be managed in the coming years.

About the Asian Development Bank ADB aims to improve the welfare of the people in the Asia and Pacific region, particularly the nearly 1.9 billion who live on less than $2 a day. Despite many success stories, the regionremains home to two thirds of the world’s poor. ADB is a multilateral development financeinstitution owned by 67 members, 48 from the region and 19 from other parts of the globe. ADB’s vision is a region free of poverty. Its mission is to help its developing member countriesreduce poverty and improve their quality of life.

ADB’s main instruments for helping its developing member countries are policy dialogue,loans, equity investments, guarantees, grants, and technical assistance. ADB’s annual lending volume is typically about $6 billion, with technical assistance usually totaling about $180million a year.

ADB’s headquarters is in Manila. It has 26 offices around the world and more than 2,000

employees from over 50 countries.

About the Asia-Pacific Water ForumThe Asia-Pacific Water Forum (APWF) provides countries and organisations in the region with a common platform and voice to accelerate the process of effective integration of water resource management into the socioeconomic development process of Asia and the Pacific.The APWF is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan, non-political network.

The APWF’s goal is to contribute to sustainable water management in order to achievethe targets of the MDGs in Asia and the Pacific by capitalizing on the region’s diversity andrich history of experience in dealing with water as a fundamental part of human existence.Specifically, the APWF seeks to champion efforts aimed at boosting investments, buildingcapacity, and enhancing cooperation in the water sector at the regional level and beyond.

Asian Development Bank 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines