Development: The 2006 Human Development Report is out

The 2006 Human Development Report was made public yesterday in Cape Town. As regards the HDI (human development index), the situation hasn't changed much in relation to previous years, with Norway presenting the highest HDI, the "usual suspects" in the first places (Scandinavian countries, Iceland, Netherlands, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Ireland), Belgium comes 13 (hard to believe…), before Denmark, in 15 (life expectancy is to blame). France comes 16, Italy 17, UK 18, Spain 19, Germany 21, Portugal 28. In Latin-America Argentina comes unsurprisingly first in 36, followed by Chile in 38, Uruguay 43, Costa Rica 48 and Mexico 53. Brasil only comes 69. In the European Union (EU) the last are Bulgaria and Romania (in 54 and 60th place respectively), also without surprise...

The theme for this year's report is the World water and sanitation crisis, which, according to the UN, urgently need a Global Action Plan. The 2006 Report calls for 20 litres of clean water a day for all as a human right. It calls for a Global Action Plan (under G8 leadership – but I ask why not under UN leadership???, which legitimacy does the G8 have?…), which is urgently needed to resolve a growing water and sanitation crisis that causes nearly two million child deaths every year. According to this year's report, entitled Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis, across much of the developing world, unclean water is an immeasurably greater threat to human security than violent conflict.

More than 2.6 billion people still lack access to proper sanitation, and 1.1 billion people have no regular access to clean water. As a result, 1.8 million children die from diarrhoea each year, making the disease the second-largest cause of global child mortality. Almost 50 percent of all people in developing countries are also suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by a lack of water and sanitation. To add to these human costs, the crisis in water and sanitation holds back economic growth, with sub-Saharan Africa losing five percent of GDP annually—far more than the region receives in aid.

Yet unlike wars and natural disasters, this global crisis does not galvanise concerted international action, says the 2006 Human Development Report (HDR). “Like hunger, it is a silent emergency experienced by the poor and tolerated by those with the resources, the technology and the political power to end it,” says the Report. With less than a decade left to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, this needs to change, stress the authors.

The report also says that world sanitation crisis causes millions of avoidable deaths and contamination from human waste is largely to blame. Simply installing a flush toilet in the home increases by almost 60 percent a Peruvian child’s chances of surviving to her first birthday, according to data in the 2006 Human Development Report documenting the often-fatal consequences of inadequate sanitation in developing countries. The Report shows that the efficacy of human-waste disposal is one of the strongest determinants of child survival around the world.

The cruel irony is that across the world, the poor are forced to pay much more for clean water than their affluent neighbours. The report notes that in the slums of Nairobi the poor pay five to 10 times more per litre of water than wealthy people living in the same city. The poorest households of El Salvador, Nicaragua and Jamaica spend on average over 10 percent of their income on water; in the United Kingdom, by contrast, spending more than three percent of family income on water is considered an economic hardship. And the longstanding public-versus-private debate on water will not bring prices down, stresses the 2006 HDR. In recent years, public debate on water-delivery policy in developing countries has been dominated by a polarizing discussion on privatization versus public ownership. But the authors argue that this is a false choice, diverting attention from the ultimate goal of finding viable ways of getting potable water to those who can least afford to pay.

Fianlly, also poor farmers face double water crisis: climate change and competition. The report claims that stronger rights, better irrigation and adaptation to global warming can avert catastrophe - if they arrive in time.

Read further: http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/