Financing Water Supply and Sanitation in Eastern
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Financing Water Supply and Sanitation in Eastern Asi Central and Caucasus Europe, Eastern in Sanitation and Supply Water Financing Financing Water « Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia Supply and Sanitation in Eastern Europe, On 17th-18th November 2005, the OECD and the Government of Armenia Caucasus co-organised a conference of Ministers of Economy/Finance, Environment and Water. Ministers met to discuss how to address the critical situation of the water sector in and Central Asia EECCA countries, particularly how to finance much-needed improvements. The meeting examined progress in light of a set of guiding principles they had adopted at an earlier meeting in Almaty in 2000. Documentation prepared for the meeting suggests that while there has been some progress, overall the situation remains critical and that on present trends the water-related MDGs would not be met. Discussions focused on key financing options and how to implement change at the local level. Other issues were also addressed: how far can user charges be increased without running into affordability problems? Public ENVIRONMENT money will be essential, but what can be done to ensure that it is used effectively? How can local authorities and water utilities function more efficiently? Is there a role for the private sector? This book presents a summary of the Ministers’ discussions as well as the background documentation that supported these debates. www.oecd.org/env/eap a FINANCING WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION IN EASTERN EUROPE, CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA PROCEEDINGS FROM A CONFERENCE OF EECCA MINISTERS OF ECONOMY/FINANCE AND ENVIRONMENT AND THEIR PARTNERS 17-18 NOVEMBER 2005, YEREVAN, ARMENIA Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT The OECD is a unique forum where the governments of 30 democracies work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies. The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD. OECD Publishing disseminates widely the results of the Organisation’s statistics gathering and research on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as the conventions, guidelines and standards, as agreed by its members. This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries. © OECD 2006 No reproduction, copy, transmission or translation of this publication may be made without written permission. Applications should be sent to OECD Publishing: [email protected] or by fax (33 1) 45 24 13 91. Permission to photocopy a portion of this work should be addressed to Centre français d’exploitation du droit de copie, 20, rue des Grands-Augustins, 75006 Paris, France ([email protected]). The work presented in this document has been supported by the European Commission under its Technical Assistance for the Commonwealth of Independent States (TACIS) programme. 2 FOREWORD Water is essential for life and economic activity. Yet in large parts of the world, many people and enterprises do not have access to safe drinking water or sanitation services. In the countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA countries), problems of access to water services are rooted in the history of that region. Ambitious investment programmes led to the development of extensive networks of water infrastructure in urban and rural areas. However, these networks were often poorly designed and constructed, and they have not been adequately maintained. As a result, water supply and sanitation infrastructure has seriously deteriorated in most countries in the region and even collapsed in some places, with potentially calamitous consequences for human health, economic activity and the environment. At a conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 16-17 October 2000, EECCA Ministers of Finance/Economy and Environment with Ministers from several OECD countries endorsed a set of Guiding Principles for Reform of the Urban Water Sector in EECCA to help reverse this preoccupying situation. Five years later, on 17th and 18th of November 2005, in Yerevan, Armenia, Ministers met again to review progress in the implementation of the Guiding Principles adopted in Almaty and to discuss further action. This volume presents the main papers from these consultations. The meetings, and this publication, were prepared under the umbrella of the EAP Task Force, an inter-governmental body with broad stakeholder participation that promotes environmental policy reform in EECCA countries. OECD’s Environment Directorate serves as the secretariat to the EAP Task Force. The papers presented in this volume have been discussed in a preparatory process involving the EAP Task Force Group of Senior Officials for Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform, the EU Water Initiative EECCA Working Group and the EAP Task Force Environmental Finance Network. Peter Börkey coordinated the overall preparation of this publication, and drafted several of the papers, under the general direction of Brendan Gillespie. The contributions of Lloyd Martin, Sergei Sivaev, Valery Prokofiev, Olga Ponizova, Alexander Martoussevitch, Gwenn Le Dantec, and Xavier Leflaive are gratefully acknowledged. Helen Shields edited most of the English language texts, while Alexander Martoussevitch and Alexander Gritsinin were responsible for editing the Russian texts. Russian translations were prepared by Natalia Chumachenko, Stanislav Kuld and Alexander Reshetov. The preparatory process and the Ministerial Conference would not have been possible without the support of the host country, Armenia. Financial support for the preparation of the meeting and this publication was provided by the European Commission, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD.................................................................................................................................................. 3 FIGURES........................................................................................................................................................ 7 TABLES ......................................................................................................................................................... 8 BOXES ........................................................................................................................................................... 9 ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................................................... 10 CO-CHAIR’S SUMMARY.......................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION OF KEY ISSUES............................................................................... 15 1.1 Assessing Progress .............................................................................................................................. 15 1.2 Financing Water Infrastructure ........................................................................................................... 16 1.3 Relations between Municipalities and Utilities................................................................................... 17 1.4 Annex .................................................................................................................................................. 19 CHAPTER 2 PROGRESS ON IMPLEMENTING THE ALMATY GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR THE REFORM OF THE URBAN WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION SECTOR IN EECCA .......... 21 2.1 Executive summary............................................................................................................................. 21 2.2 Background and introduction.............................................................................................................. 22 2.3 Current state of the water supply and sanitation sector in EECCA..................................................... 23 2.4 Legal and institutional reforms undertaken since the Almaty Conference ......................................... 36 2.5 Conclusions......................................................................................................................................... 43 CHAPTER 3 MEETING THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION TARGET IN THE EECCA REGION: A GOAL WITHIN REACH ? ............................... 45 3.1 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................ 45 3.2 Introduction........................................................................................................................................