SMALL sanitation schemes will benefit the urban poor, especially those living in megacities in Southeast Asia, including Metro Manila, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) expert.
In an Asian Development Blog, ADB Independent Evaluation Department Principal Evaluation Specialist Tomoo Ueda said governments should prioritize small sanitation facilities rather than big off-site sanitation facilities.
Ueda said this will allow these sanitation facilities to reach the urban poor better. Currently, in developing Asian countries, only 45 percent of the urban population is currently connected to a sewer system.
“Some big cities in Southeast Asia, like Bangkok and Manila, rely on decentralized, on-site sanitation. Outside the region, a similar situation can be found in cities in Ghana, Kenya and Peru,” Ueda said.
“For these systems to function, they need to be regularly maintained. Small-scale providers do this through septic-tank emptying, waste recycling and building latrines. This vital but largely unregulated sector receives little support,” he added.
Ueda said development banks, including the ADB, should extend support to these small sanitation schemes either through concessionary loans and/or equity investments.
He said supporting these kinds of schemes augurs well for not only meeting the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of providing sanitation for all but also addressing rapid urbanization.
The ADB Principal Evaluation Specialist said 46 percent of Asia’s population is projected to be urban by 2020. This means sanitation solutions must already include the poor living in cities.
“A big push by development banks to support these actors through access to finance—for example, through concessionary loans and equity investments—and by using policy dialogue to regulate these services to raise their quality could be a game changer,” Ueda said.
Earlier, 3M Philippines Government Affairs and Markets Leader Christopher A. Ilagan said the National Economic and Development Authority had a framework to improve water supply and sanitation nationwide. But more needs to be done to turn this framework into actual projects on the ground.
The policy brief even stated that meeting water-related SDGs by 2030 will require the country to invest P31 billion to P32 billion annually. Around P17 billion of this, Ilagan said, is only for meeting the minimum requirements for water-related indicators, which is universal access.
This is a tall order given that the country’s actual investment for municipal/domestic water supply is only P2 to P5 billion a year. Further, this means the country spends less than a $1 average capital investment in municipal/domestic water supply.
Financing the huge requirements, Ilagan said, cannot be done through the private sector or Official Development Assistance (ODA) alone.
Water security is Goal 6 of the SDGs. The primary target is to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030.
Apart from the primary target, there are five other targets — achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all; improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials; and substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity.
The targets also include implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate and protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes.
The SDGs were adopted by 193 United Nation-member countries, including the Philippines in 2015.
The SDGs have 169 targets and 233 indicators. The Philippines has data to monitor only 103 indicators while the rest are either inapplicable or are not available.