This report is made possible by the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The contents are the responsibility of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; views expressed in this report are not nec- essarily those of the Center’s staff, fellows, trustees, advisory groups, or any individ- uals or programs that provide assistance to the Center. W A The Environmental Change and Security Program’s Navigating Peace TER STORIES: WATER STORIES: EXPANDING Report from the Navigating Initiative, supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and led by Peace Initiative of the ECSP Director Geoffrey Dabelko, seeks to generate fresh thinking on the OPPORTUNITIES IN SMALL-SCALE Environmental Change world’s water problems on three areas: and Security Program • Expanding opportunities for small-scale water and sanitation projects; EXP WATER AND SANITATION PROJECTS • Analyzing water’s potential to spur both conflict and cooperation; and ANDING OPPOR • Building dialogue and cooperation between the United States and China using lessons from water conflict resolution. For more information, see www.wilsoncenter.org/water TUNITIES Environmental Change and Security Program Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars IN SMALL-SCALE One Woodrow Wilson Plaza 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004-3027 Tel: 202.691.4000 W A Fax: 202.691.4001 TER AND SANIT [email protected] www.wilsoncenter.org/ecsp A TION PROJECTS Navigating Peace Water Conflict and Cooperation POLICY BRIEFS Editors A series of policy briefs examines how water can contribute to cooperation Meaghan Parker between states, while addressing water’s role in conflict within states. The Alison Williams briefs offer policy recommendations for using water resources manage- Charlotte Youngblood ment to head off conflict and to support sustainable peace among countries. WATER CAN BE A PATHWAY WATER, CONFLICT, AND Assistant Editor TO PEACE, NOT WAR COOPERATION: LESSONS Rachel Weisshaar By Aaron T. Wolf, Annika Kramer, FROM THE NILE RIVER BASIN Alexander Carius, and Geoffrey D. By Patricia Kameri-Mbote Photographs Dabelko THE CHALLENGES OF GROUNDWATER © J. Carl Ganter/Circleofblue.org THE NEW FACE OF IN SOUTHERN AFRICA WATER CONFLICT By Anthony Turton, Marian Patrick, By Ken Conca Jude Cobbing, and Frédéric Julien WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS The Center is the living memorial the United States of America to the nation’s twenty-eighth president, CONTENTS Woodrow Wilson. Congress established the Woodrow Wilson Center in 1968 as an international institute for advanced study, “symbolizing and strengthening the fruitful relationship between the world of learning and iii PREFACE the world of public affairs.” The Center opened in 1970 under its own board of trustees. By Ambassador John W. McDonald In all its activities the Woodrow Wilson Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, supported financial- 1 INTRODUCTION ly by annual appropriations from Congress, and by the contributions of foundations, corporations, and individ- By Alicia Hope Herron and Geoffrey Dabelko uals. Conclusions or opinions expressed in Center publications and programs are those of the authors and speak- 9 WATER STORIES PHOTO ESSAY ers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center staff, fellows, trustees, advisory groups, or any individ- By J. Carl Ganter uals or organizations that provide financial support to the Center. 17 HOUSEHOLD WATER TREATMENT AND SAFE STORAGE Lee H. Hamilton, President and Director OPTIONS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A REVIEW OF CURRENT IMPLEMENTATION PRACTICES By Daniele S. Lantagne, Robert Quick, and Eric D. Mintz BOARD OF TRUSTEES Joseph B. Gildenhorn, Chair 39 COMMUNITY-BASED APPROACHES TO WATER AND David A. Metzner, Vice Chair SANITATION: A SURVEY OF BEST, WORST, AND EMERGING PRACTICES Public members: Joseph B. Gildenhorn, Chair; David A. Metzner, Vice Chair. Public Members: James H. By John Oldfield Billington, Librarian of Congress; Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States; Bruce Cole, Chair, National 59 LOW-COST SANITATION: AN OVERVIEW Endowment for the Humanities; Michael O. Leavitt, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human OF AVAILABLE METHODS Services; Tamala L. Longaberger, Designated Appointee of the President from Within the Federal Government; By Alicia Hope Herron Condoleezza Rice, Secretary, U.S. Department of State; Cristián Samper, Acting Secretary, Smithsonian 71 NAVIGATING THE MAINSTREAM: THE CHALLENGE Institution; Margaret Spellings, Secretary, U.S. Department of Education OF MAKING WATER ISSUES MATTER By J. Carl Ganter Private Citizen Members: Robert B. Cook, Donald E. Garcia, Bruce S. Gelb, Sander R. Gerber, Charles L. 85 CLOSING THE GAPS: IMPROVING THE PROVISION Glazer, Susan Hutchison, Ignacio E. Sanchez OF WATER AND SANITATION By Charlotte Youngblood and Geoffrey Dabelko WATER STORIES: EXPANDING Report from the Navigating Peace Initiative of the OPPORTUNITIES IN SMALL-SCALE Environmental Change WATER AND SANITATION PROJECTS and Security Program The water in these rusting tanks must last for a week’s worth of cooking, washing, and bathing in Iztapalapa, Mexico City. ©2006 J. Carl Ganter/Circleofblue.org PREFACE Ambassador John W. McDonald, Chairman The Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy nderstanding the relevance of this book, for the next 10 years. But finally, in 2000, the produced by the Navigating Peace UN established the Millennium Development U Initiative, requires relating a bit of per- Goals (MDGs). Goal 7 called for reducing by half sonal history. At the first inter-governmental world the number of people in the world without safe conference on water at Mar del Plata, Argentina in water by 2015. At the third world conference on 1977, the represented governments adopted a Plan the environment in Johannesburg in 2002, “sani- of Action recommending a large number of nation- tation” was added to Goal 7. al and international actions on water. In 1978, But how would we reach these lofty goals? I after returning to the State Department after a began promoting a second water decade at a meet- four-year tour with the International Labor ing at the Wilson Center in early 2002, and draft- Organization, I read the plan for the first time. ed a UN Resolution calling for a second UN Water Water had fascinated me since my service in the Decade designed to achieve the water MDG by Middle East and I was familiar with water-related 2015. Finally, with the government of Tajikistan problems facing developing countries, especially taking the lead, the resolution was adopted by the those suffered by the rural poor. UN General Assembly in 2003, and scheduled to One recommendation stood out: a call for the launch on World Water Day, March 22, 2005. United Nations to designate a decade focused sole- The United States has now stepped up to the ly on the problems of drinking water and sanita- plate. Thanks to the combined efforts of tion. I decided to make that recommendation a Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Senator Bill reality. I drafted a UN resolution designed to Frist, on December 1, 2005, President George W. launch the Water Decade, and over the next 18 Bush signed into law the Senator Paul Simon months, pushed it until it was adopted by four dif- Water for the Poor Act, which directs the secre- ferent UN bodies and, on November 10, 1980, by tary of State to develop a detailed strategy for the entire General Assembly. By 1990, the end of integrating water and sanitation programs into the Decade, the World Health Organization U.S. foreign policy. The law also calls upon the reported that 1.1 billion people received safe drink- United States to fulfill its commitment to Goal ing water for the first time in their lives and 769 7—the first time that a MDG has been adopted as part of U.S. law. This landmark bipartisan leg- P million people gained access to sanitary facilities. REF Unfortunately, these impressive figures did not islation puts the United States on the front lines ACE prevent water from falling off government radar of the fight to bring clean water and sanitation to screens at the end of the Decade. Little happened those without it. iii iv WATER STORIES: EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES IN SMALL-SCALE WATER AND SANITATION PROJECTS and sanitation, the authors show that we willnot thatwe and sanitation,theauthorsshow ating small-scaleopportunities toexpandwater andevalu- reporting By els, butalsoatthelowest: calls notonlyforglobalactionatthehighestlev- here, intheseriesofpapersgathered Initiative, Peace The Navigating be enoughtomeetthisgoal. But high-level politicalattentionalonewillnot high-level But world is currently facing. world iscurrently oneofthemostcriticalissues in addressing asalocal—leadershiprole taking aglobal—aswell is States these efforts demonstratethattheUnited solutions likeceramicfiltersandpitlatrines.Allof buteffective win thisfightwithoutunglamorous INTRODUCTION: WATER STORIES By Alicia Hope Herron and Geoffrey Dabelko ot surprisingly, the word “water” world are blocked by large funding gaps and often is found in every language in the mired in debates over governance, privatization, Nworld (UNESCO, 2006).1 But water and large infrastructure projects. However, small- often denotes more than the substance we drink scale and community-based solutions—the focus to survive. For example, the Setswana word for of this publication—can help bridge these gaps rain—pula—is also the name of Botswanan cur- and move beyond the debates. rency; and significantly, it is invoked after