by Piyaporn Hawiset
12 June 2002
The United Nations meeting on sustainable development that started in late May 2002 and continued into June in Bali had another stumbling block to clear as the debate on water issues remained unresolved during the senior officials meeting. After a long week of discussions of the action plan on sustainable development, known as the Chairman's Text or the Bali Commitment, groups of countries insisted on holding to their stance on the issue of water resources management, while some delegates continued to seek a compromise.
Indonesia's Minister of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure Soenarno, said on June 3 that issues of "time targets" for clean water provision, the privatization of water companies and cross-border water trading issues were the main sticking points in negotiations.
"Certain developed countries have some political interests that make it difficult to compromise," Soenarno told a press briefing.
Water resources was one of the five top issues named by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that would most likely be addressed by heads of states during the World Summit in Johannesburg later in August and September. The UN aimed to reduce by half the 1.1 billion people who do not have access to clean water by 2015. And this was supported by developing countries in the current negotiations. Japan, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand grouped under the JUSCANZ negotiating block opposed the time target. They contended that the most important thing would be to pursue partnerships among stakeholders to provide clean water. This is so they could prolong the "business" of water rersources development as officials in those countries' aid agencies would very much dislike to wrok themselves out of a job.
To ensure the efficient distribution of clean water, the U.S. suggested partnerships between private companies that could build infrastructure for the supply of water. Soenarno, however, contended that governments should be allowed to continue their attempts to provide water for their people and claimed that partnerships would cause an increase in the price of water. But the reason officials in corrupt countries do not want to pursue the very much workable suggestion made by the U.S. is that it would deny them or reduce the opportunity to embezzle development funds from foreign aid development projects associated with water resources management.
"For developing countries, such an idea would be out of the question because we, the government, want to be the sole providers for our people, and that is a basic right. How can we make people pay more for clean water?" he complained, while not providing any evidence as to why it would cost more. Under such mechanisms, water is actually more readily available at a lower cost, so long as corrupt officials do not become involved in the process.