The following guest blog post is an excerpt of the recorded remarks made by Dr. Aida Karazhanova during the Sharing Innovative Practices session at Youth Forum on April 15th during the 7th World Water Forum. She is among the professionals who took the time to share their personal experiences and career advice with youth and for whose contributions the Water Youth Network is grateful.
Dr. Karazhanova is the Economic Affairs Officer of the Energy Security and Water Resources Section of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
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If water was a currency, would you waste it?
I work for Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and my daily priorities and thoughts are within technical reports on water security.
In other words I am looking for facts and figures and how to translate them into state policies to ensure water and sanitation for all humans on earth.
In this capacity I try to find means to facilitate and align policies, with shared accountability and compliance.
I desire to see access to safe water and to safe sanitation facilities when we need it. I would like to be personally accountable for the positive impact from my own work in this regard.
Let me highlight 4 levels of shared accountability.
1) International: The Global 7 World Water Forum like this gather all of us, so we learn from each other and strategize our joint future, be accountable;
2) National: Governments setting up norms and policies to ensure sustainable future for generations and within efficient and safe water infrastructure;
3) Regional and transboundary level: from the one hand it is inspiring, from the other hand, it is following and implementing visionary strategies, making the best out of them for better livelihoods.
4) Individual: The level of accountability of You and Me, our better thoughts and better actions.
I would like to highlight three points to be considered in this regard, which might give a sense of direction on what we decide to do, when we return home from the Forum next Friday.
First of all: Increase Awareness! You and Me have to understand, comply with rules, created by Governments. We are accountable on our own actions and choices. At the end of the day we want to leave our beautiful planet Earth to our children with a great future in their hands. We need to find
affordable and applicable mechanisms in harvesting resources from wastes. One human produces 400 grams of Phosphorous, annually. This might mean nothing without context. But if we translate this to a city of one million humans, and into a production of an organic fertilizers to use at the rice fields, then it mean one human body literally provide food to over 1000 hungry stomachs. This shift in thinking is a smart move!
Secondly: Ensure Public Private Partnerships (PPP) for Sustainable Sanitation Services (3S) through Impactful Investment and engaging communities to create business!
We need to keep encouraging as many people as possible, at the institutional levels, like business, banks, governments, academia, industries and engineering.
Traditionally, we invest in water infrastructure at the centralized level, which is fully subsidized, requires high costs in operations and maintenance. It is not always sustainable.
The shift should be made from input oriented investment towards outcome based and socially impactful investment.
The business through collaborative partnership that we enable should bring Return From Investments, and through reward and threat schemes of policies, should not create wastes.
Research shows that one dollar of investment to sanitation brings from $3 to $34 USD of economic returns back to the Government.
Look at what this is creating: everything from health, resources to work with, productivity, new jobs and increasing the purchasing power and income, to market opportunities.
At last we can see this transforming into clean rivers, improved health, happy spirits, and better livelihoods.
Another fact: investment in sanitation increases GDP from 2 to 6 percent. And in developing countries of Cambodia, Lao, Viet Nam this is essential.
Donors providing financing through impactful schemes are agents of change and should be treated as Champions in water security.
The third step is to enable the shift towards decentralized wastewater management and sanitation, which is more affordable, facilities are easy to maintain through the job of service providers, and this is an effective management of water supply and sanitation services at the community level
as it is generating job.
Earlier in April, 2015 we had a study visit to two DEWATS facilities in Thailand. The local business is using biotechnology and creating bio-products, for example, detergents for washing dishes and other sanitary products.
Personally, I feel nostalgic about childhood sceneries’ of the Hindu-Hymalayan Kush, the source of many rivers. Yet, the snow-capped Tyan shanmountains are now green in all seasons, which is an irreversible impact of climate change.
This in turn led my country to call for a partnership and the green bridge policy actions towards transition to green economy.
If we do not act today, we would inevitably create tension and problems in future. We can not fathom life without shower, drink, food, and shelter. Take for example India and Brazil, in these countries we see that lack of water supply creates disunity and mistrust among people with govt. Its in our
hands to bridge the two.
In summary: shared economy includes shared accountability. The service-oriented business, enabled by the right water and sanitation policies is an art and can reunify us.
Let us craft our future with our own hands.
