Latinosan Panamá 2013 – 3rd Latin American Sanitation Conference, 29-31 May 2013

The Republic of Panama is organizing the Third Latin American Sanitation Conference on 29-31 May 2013. The theme is:  “Universal Sanitation: New Challenges, New Opportunities”.

Latinosan is held every three years.

Latinosan 2013 consists of two events: a technical conference and a meeting of senior officials that will result in the Declaration of Panama.

Main topics:

• the status of sanitation at regional and country levels
• institutions and public policy
• human rights and sustainable development
• post-2015 goals: regional and global

For more information visit the conference website: latinosanpanama2013.com (Spanish only)

Towards sustainable water services in La Paz, Bolivia

Woman in Chuquiaguillo siphoning water from tank to fill jerry cans. Photo: Erma Uytewaal, IRC.

A Dutch-funded project aims to bring piped drinking water to peri-urban neighbourhoods of the Bolivian capital La Paz. What will determine its success? Is it the inhabitants’ willingness and ability to pay for improved water services? No, the biggest threat to the sustainability of the project is the lack of a national sector strategy that clearly outlines how to finance the full costs of service delivery.

At present, the 125,000 inhabitants of the Chuquiaguillo sub-district have to rely on a network of plastic/flexible tubes providing untreated water through public taps. Or they get water from water tankers and unprotected springs.

“Network of plastic/flexible tubes providing untreated water” in Chuquiaguillo. Photo: Erma Uytewaal, IRC.

The Chuquiaguillo Water Supply Service Improvement and Extension Project will connect 25,000 homes to a new water supply system by 2015. The system consists of a water treatment plant and 50 km of distribution pipes. The project wants to ensure that services are sustained long after the infrastructure is in place. The IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre contributed to this aim by supporting consultants Royal HaskoningDHV to carry out a socio-economic feasibility study of the Chuquiaguillo project. The study examined the pro-poor impact of the project and the ability and willingness of the poor to pay for the services.

Royal HaskoningDHV and water operator Vitens Evides International (VEI) are advising Bolivia’s state-run water utility EPSAS to implement the Chuquiaguillo project. It faces several technical and environmental challenges due to the difference in altitude between the water reservoir and the service area, and climate change (for more details see the NL Agency website).  The project is being financed by the Facility for Infrastructure Development (ORIO), a grant scheme operated by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Critical for the project’s sustainability is a national sector strategy that clearly outlines how to finance the full costs of service delivery. As it stands now, tariffs only cover direct operations and some maintenance costs. In line with the present governments’ pro-poor policy, service providers apply a solidarity tariff for the first 10 cubic metres of water. However, it is unclear how the solidarity tariff will be subsidised. This needs to be clarified in a sector financing strategy, which also promotes a life-cycle costs approach (LCCA) in which all costs for capital expenditure, capital maintenance, and direct and indirect support are covered.

The social action plan, to be implemented by EPSAS, will also contribute to the sustainability of the project. Enhanced transparency and accountability are important elements of the plan. This refers to  performance indicators on service levels provided, cost recovery, investments, customer satisfaction, and operation and maintenance (O&M).

For more information contact Erma Uytewaal

For more on IRC’s activities in Latin America go to: www.irc.nl/page/36926

For more on the Life-cycle costs approach go to: www.washcost.info

For more on sustainable service delivery go to: www.waterservicesthatlast.org

Haiti: cholera victims demand UN compensation

The United Nations has been hit with a demand for hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from Haitian cholera victims.

The Boston, USA-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) filed the demand on behalf of some 5,000 victims.

IJDH is demanding US$ 50,000 in compensation for each sick person and US$ 100,000  for each death. In addition, it wants a public apology and an adequate nationwide response – including medical care and clean water and sanitation infrastructure.

Uruguay: legislation approved to make sewerage connections compulsory

All households in Uruguay must now have a  sewerage connection. Uruguay’s House of Representatives passed a bill making sewerage connections compulsory on 5 July 2011.

The new bill includes provisions to provide subsidies and grants to those who cannot afford a connection, as well as fines for those who fail to comply with the new law.

In the capital Montevideo, the local government will administer the new law, while state water utility OSE will be responsible for the rest of the country.

While improved rural sanitation coverage was estimated to be 99% in 2008 (WHO/UNICEF, 2010), some 50,000 households are still not connected to a sewerage network. In some areas only 15% of households have sewerage connections.

Source: La Republica [in Spanish], 05 Jul 2011

Ecuador: Chevron contesting US$ 8.6 billion fine for Amazon pollution, calls case an “extortion scheme”

A court in Ecuador has fined US oil multinational Chevron US$ 8.6 billion for polluting a large part of the country’s Amazon region. Speaking to the BBC, company spokesperson Kent Robertson said the case was an “extortion scheme”, blaming Ecuador’s state-run firm Petroecuador for ongoing problems.

“Justice does exist,” said Guillermo Grefa, a Kichwa representative to the Assembly of Affected Communities who brought the class action suit on behalf of 30,000 residents of the Amazon region. “I can now dream of drinking clean water, water with no oil residue, and that the earth will begin to clean and heal.”

The oil firm Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, is accused of dumping toxic waste into local streams and rivers between 1972 and 1992. Campaigners say crops were damaged and farm animals killed, and that local cancer rates increased. Chevron says Texaco spent US$ 40 million cleaning up the area during the 1990s and spent US$ 5 million on community projects. In 1995 Chevron negotiated a settlement with the Ecuadorian government absolving the company of any further responsibility.

Costa Rica: Congress reaches broad consensus on water bill

Six of the seven political factions in Costa Rica’s congress have reached a consensus on a new water bill, which aims to protect the country’s water resources and make access to potable water a constitutionally protected right. Congress will convene to discuss the bill in an extraordinary session which begins August 3 [2010].

Source: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 02 Aug 2010

Ecuador: lawmakers fail to reach water bill deal

Ecuadorean lawmakers on Thursday [12 May 2010] failed to reach a deal on suspending debate of a contested water bill that has sparked protests by indigenous groups who fear it threatens their rights to natural resources.

President Rafael Correa says the bill will better regulate the water system. But the failure by lawmakers to agree over the bill opens the way for more indigenous protests over an issue that is a political headache for his leftist government.

Lawmakers were ruling on a motion by Congress President Fernando Cordero to postpone debate over the bill for six months while indigenous communities were consulted over the impact of the proposal on their territories.

Opposition and some pro-government lawmakers blocked an attempt to reach a deal on postponement.

“The water law will be voted on the day we can have the consultations,” Cordero said after the vote though no date was set to resume debate on the proposal.

While Ecuador’s indigenous groups were instrumental in toppling previous governments, analysts say Correa has a solid grip on power and indigenous leaders are more splintered than in past protests when thousands descended on Quito.

Indigenous leaders say the water bill will pave the way for privatizations of natural resources and impact their farming and small-scale mining industries. Correa dismisses the protesters as “liars.”

“The government is irresponsible and is playing with the Ecuadorean people,” said Marlon Santi, head of the Indigenous Confederation of Ecuador or CONAIE. “The protests will continue for now.”

Earlier this month police used tear gas to break up protests outside the Congress building and some demonstrators broke into the building but were ejected by security forces.

Correa, a U.S.-trained former finance minister, came to power in 2007 with broad indigenous support after promising to challenge the political old guard many Ecuadoreans blamed for years of instability in the world’s largest banana exporter.

Correa still has more political capital than predecessors after introducing measures such as increased welfare spending for the poor and striking out at foreign investors. But he has seen his popularity wane as the OPEC nation’s economy flagged during the global economic crisis.

Source: Santiago Silva, Reuters, 13 May 2010

Peru: new regulations unlikely to solve water conflicts, says expert

Peru’s new law regulating hydrological resources is unlikely to solve social conflicts caused by disputes over water, Laureano del Castillo, lawyer and hydrological expert with the national center for social studies (Cepes), told BNamericas.

Read full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 31 Mar 2010

Peru: new standards for effluents are insufficient while coverage remains low – expert

The Peruvian environment ministry’s (Minam) new standards for wastewater effluents will have little impact given the country’s low wastewater treatment coverage [15%], Laureano del Castillo, lawyer and hydrological expert with the national center for social studies (Cepes), told BNamericas. President Alan García aims to reach 100% wastewater treatment coverage by 2015.

For Minam’s full decree outlining the new norms, in Spanish, go to this link.

Read the full interview with Laureano del Castillo [BNamericas.com subscribers only]

Read full articles on: : BNamericas.com [subscription site], 01 Apr 2010 ; BNamericas.com, 22 Mar 2010

Trinidad & Tobago: water authority considering clampdown on bottled water firms

Trinidad & Tobago’s water and sewerage authority (WASA) is considering a clampdown on bottled water companies in the light of the drought affecting the country. If the water shortage worsens, WASA will suspend water extraction from wells used by bottled water firms

Read full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 18 Mar 2010