Brazil’s new environment minister Carlos Minc announced he will present a 10-year plan to alleviate the lack of basic sanitation in the country to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Minc said it was not his intention to divert funds from other ministries, but only to have his ministry participate in a strategy for environmental sanitation.
Minc’s plan is to raise the proportion of the population with access to sewage service from the current 35% to 75% in ten years time.
Brazil’s federal government’s growth acceleration plan PAC will invest 38.3bn reais (US$23.1bn) in basic sanitation by 2010. However, the director of water and sanitation at the cities ministry, Márcio Galvão Fonseca, said the sector needs a 200bn reais investment.
The current government programme aims to provide about 7.3mn homes with sewage collection and treatment, leaving still some 9mn homes without sewage services. Of the 40bn reais destined to basic sanitation, contracts have already been signed for 23.6bn reais, with 10.1bn reais allocated for sewage works.
Brazilian Health Foundation (Funasa) president Danilo Fortes announced that Funasa would double investments in sanitation over the coming years. The focus will be on reaching isolated populations, such as indigenous people, rural communities and the 1,356 small towns (with less than 50,000 inhabitants) which, according to Funasa data, have the highest national rates of infant mortality. The plan is to raise sewage services in these segments from 38% to 65%. In addition, Funasa aims to provide at least a third of indigenous villages with sanitation, up from the current 20%.
Peruvian President Alan García has passed a bill to create the environment ministry. It will be headed by two deputy ministers: one for strategic development of natural resources (including the rainforest), and the other for environmental management.
The creation of the ministry came on the eve of a joint Latin American and European Union summit expected to focus on climate change. Peru’s glaciers, which are a source of water for the arid Pacific coast, where almost three-quarters of Peru’s population live, may disappear within 25 years as a result of climate change. The loss of glaciers in the Andes mountain range is threatening the water supply of 30 million people in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
Critics say the new ministry has been hastily put together (in just one month) in time for the summit and because it was a requirement of a bilateral trade deal with the US. They also say it lacks decision-making powers in key areas.
Although the ministry’s responsibilities will include for monitoring of industrial wastewater emissions and industrial water use, it will not have authority over water management. The government wants the Agriculture Ministry to be in charge of water, through the recently created National Water Authority.
Sources: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 14 May 2008 ; Dan Collyns, BBC, 14 May 2008 ; Milagros Salazar, IPS, 2 Apr 2008
Peru will obtain US$80mn in funding from the water and sanitation cooperation fund, created by the Spanish government. The fund, announced by Spain in November 2007, was launched on 16 May 2008 in Lima, during the Latin America and Caribbean-European Union heads of state summit. Peru will be the first country to receive resources from the fund, which has US$1.5bn to distribute from 2008-12.
Source: BNamericas [subscription site], 20 May 2008
Colombia’s minister of environment, housing and territorial development Juan Lozano Ramírez announced the state will invest 9.2tn pesos (US$5.2bn) to expand and speed up potable water coverage throughout the country. The government is also considering obtaining external funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Potable water supply has become a national priority for authorities. The state has already allocated 1bn-pesos for the Pacific coast, the area with the lowest coverage.
El Salvador’s national water authority Anda (Administración Nacional de Acueductos y Alcantarillados) plans to install 15,700 plastic water meters throughout capital San Salvador. The meters will only be installed on request of the user. Many users with fixed rates are unlikely to request installation as this would lead to higher bills. ANDA hopes the installation of plastic meters will also put an end to the theft of bronze water meters.
Water and Housing Minister, Dr. Horace Chang, announced that a master plan is being developed to achieve the government’s goal of providing drinking water to all rural communities by 2015. This initiative is being implemented by the Rural Water Supply Company, formerly Carib Engineering Corporation Limited (CECL). According to Dr. Chang, less than 50 per cent of rural communities have access to potable water, and many residents in these areas still rely on traditional sources.
The EU has loaned 20mn euros for environmental management in the 32 municipalities of Guatemala’s Huehuetenango department. The official launch of the Desarrollo Rural y Local project was scheduled for 12 May 2008. The Guatemalan government is providing 5mn euros as counterpart funds. The project includes much needed basic infrastructure services for solid waste, potable water distribution and water treatment. None of Huehuetenango’s municipalities distributes water fit for human consumption, the environment ministry’s (MARN) Huehuetenango office head Hermán Ochoa.
Source: Renzo Dasso, BNamericas.com [subscription site], 5 May 2008
The Chilean government plans to launch an integrated geographic information system, known as geoportal, in June/July 2008, the commercial manager of ESRI Chile, Juan Enrique Silva, told BNamericas.
[...]
Some of the information to be available through geoportal includes data regarding water resources, glaciers, land and urban centers. The system will therefore be used in the planning and management of initiatives regarding water resources for human consumption, industrial use and irrigation, as well as water for energy production.
Read more: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 2 May 2008
Jamaica’s National Water Commission (NWC) is unhappy with the 23% adjustment in rates approved by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR). The NWC was hoping to increase charges by 44% to reflect the real cost of providing potable water and sanitation services across the country. Deteriorating infrastructure coupled with increasing demand for improvement and expansion of coverage are other issues to be taken into consideration, the release said. The NWC said that OUR’s decision would prevent them from implementing future improvement projects.
In it statement, the OUR said that it had “rejected the forty four percent rate increase applied for by the National Water Commission after a review of its revenue requirements, citing among other things the NWC’s failure to meet several performance targets. The OUR in its tariff determination for the five year period 2008 – 2013 approved a twenty three percent increase in rates and imposed more stringent Guaranteed Standards, including a penalty for wrongfully disconnection and a reduced time span for reconnection of service and meter change. The Office also allowed the K-factor programme proposed by the NWC to rehabilitate its network and thereby increase its efficiency”.
Minister of Housing and Water Harry Narine Nawbatt has officially launched the National Water Council which is expected to facilitate the promotion of an integrated water resource management approach in Guyana. The idea for its establishment emerged during consultations when it was suggested that there should be a merger of the former water companies – Guyana Sewerage and Water Commissioners (GS&WC) and Guyana Water Authority (GUYWA). The idea is to focus not only on delivery of potable water but on management of water resources. The Council will serve as an advisory forum to the Minister of Housing and Water in implementing, developing and amending the national water policy. In addition, the Council will make recommendations on the national water policy and other functions as stipulated under the water policy Act.
Water and Housing Minister, Dr. 
