Corruption and Water
Water is a quencher of thirst, a grower of crops, a generator of power, fundamental to hygiene, and a basic natural resource vital for our daily existence. Water is necessary for human survival. Water is also a foundation for development. Without water, there can be no economic growth, no industry, no hydropower, no agriculture and no cities. Investing in water governance and infrastructure means investing in jobs, agriculture and food security, education, gender empowerment, environmental equity, as well as reducing infant mortality, improving health and a host of other factors that are commonly seen as the pre-requisites of progress.
Too often, this investment is blocked by corruption. Corruption keeps the poor in poverty and makes the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDG) impossible to achieve. To date, clean drinking water remains unobtainable for nearly 1.2 billion people around the world. This is not due to scarcity, but rather a lack of good governance. In many countries up to 50 percent or more of water goes unaccounted for due to unmonitored water leakages in pipes and canals, unauthorised connections from the rich and illegal tapping by the poor. The water crisis is a governance crisis with corruption at its core.
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The Water Integrity Network (WIN)
Recognising this, the Water Integrity Network (WIN) was formed to support anti-corruption activities in the water sector worldwide by forging coalitions that can take action in ways that individuals or single organisations cannot. The complexity of multiple geographical and institutional levels typical of water sub-sectors makes such coalitions essential. If corruption in water worldwide is to be successfully contained, it requires the establishment and sustained functioning of local, national and international cross-sector coalitions made up of all stakeholders. The WIN welcomes organisations and individuals that view anti-corruption measures as central to equitable and sustainable development, economic efficiency and social equity. The WIN is itself a primary example of varied stakeholders coming together to increase integrity in the water sector.
What WIN can do?
The overall development aim of WIN is to reduce poverty by fighting corruption. Improved governance of water resources and services, such as through enhanced integrity, transparency, accountability and honesty, increases the chances of sustainable and equitable use of water and the expansion and effective delivery of water supply and sanitation. The Network’s specific objectives are to:
* Promote increased awareness and understanding of corruption issues related to water;
* Improve the information and knowledge base and disseminate effective anti-corruption methodologies and best practices relevant for organisations working with water;
* Support practical actions to fight corruption in water;
* Develop monitoring mechanisms relating to corruption in water; and
* Encourage and support enhanced capacity development of governments, civil society, private sector and all other interested parties to undertake and coordinate activities, advocate and work together against corruption in water.
Design and Implementation
of Anti-Corruption Measures
GIACC advises stakeholders in the infrastructure, construction and engineering sectors in relation to the design and implementation of:
* Anti-corruption programmes: In order to limit their involvement in corruption, government departments, project owners, project funders, contractors, consulting engineering firms and other stakeholders, should adopt and implement a systematic programme in their respective organisations to prevent and detect corruption both internally and in dealings with third parties. The programme should be developed according to the size of the organisation, the nature of its operations, and the perception of risk. Small or low risk organisations would require a lower level of preventive action than large organisations involved in high risk projects.
* Project anti-corruption systems: It is now widely accepted that proper safety systems should be implemented on projects to reduce the risk of injury. A similar systematic approach should be adopted in relation to corruption. To minimise the risk of corruption on projects, public and private sector project owners should ensure that project anti-corruption systems are implemented on their projects which impact on all project phases and on all major project participants. Project funders should require the implementation of such systems as a condition of funding. The system should be developed according to the size of the project and the perception of risk.
* Anti-corruption procedures for government regulatory authorities: Public sector authorities responsible for regulating infrastructure procurement should ensure that regulations and procedures include anti-corruption measures. This may require the introduction of anti-corruption measures, or the enhancement of existing anti-corruption measures.
* Specific anti-corruption measures: Organisations may wish to enhance their existing anti-corruption measures, or to adopt specific measures for particular circumstances. These measures may include, for example, anti-corruption agreements, contract terms, employment terms, due diligence, transparency, anti-corruption rules, corporate codes, claims codes, reporting procedures, and dealing with corruption.
"Corruption in water can lead to skewed and inequitable water resources allocation, to uncontrolled and illegal pollution, to groundwater over-extraction, and to degraded ecosystems," Andrew Hudson, the principal technical advisor to the United Nations Development Programme.
Water corruption ranges from petty bribes to corporate manipulation of public water services. When added up, corruption raises the price for water services between 10 and 30 percent worldwide each year, the report said. These additional costs pose grave threats for countries' chances of meeting the U.N. Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water. Based on the worst-case scenario, corruption could raise the cost of achieving the goal by $48 billion.
The high cost of water engineering leads to the widespread prevalence of corruption. Municipal water infrastructure projects are valued at roughly $210 billion annually in Western Europe, North America, and Japan alone. Large-scale hydropower is considered a "breeding ground for corruption," the report said. An estimated $50-60 billion in annual investments is expected for hydropower worldwide in the coming decades.
National and international experts showed how recent initiatives in water and sanitation have defeated corruption and improved service delivery -- through greater transparency, more diligent disclosure of information, and direct accountability mechanisms that enable customers to raise their voices to demand and get better service.
Concrete tools to fight corruption were presented at the workshops. They included water distribution systems owned and managed by communities (Agua Tuya Program), legal instruments that support transparency, accountability and information mechanisms, e-procurement and transparency mechanisms at the Panama Canal Authority, the use of integrity pacts to increase trust in public contracts, accountability practices to keep the customers informed, citizen-based report cards, benchmarking, and vulnerability assessment, among others.
Corruption in the water sector is not something new. Infact it could be one of the oldest forms of corruption. All civilisations have evolved around water, the Indus, the Nile, Euphrates and Tigris, Tiber, the tank systems in Sri Lanka, etc.
Water is an element that humans have organised and (mostly) cooperated around. As water was one of the first resources whose use was regulated, it is likely that it was the first resource that was misused for personal gain i.e. corruption. The reason why water has been an organising force on our societies lays both in its importance for all human activities and in its spatial and geographical distribution, e.g. South Asia is quite well endowed on average, but the monsoon climate calls for organisation.
Implementing HR in Raajjeyge water sector:
UN human rights system now has a separate mechanism exclusively dedicated to issues related to the right to water and sanitation. The resolution also confirms that governments have obligations to ensure access to safe drinking water and sanitation under international human rights law.
Here in Male’ we seem to have forgotten the stenching smell of groundwater in densely packed islands after our tap started running desalinated water. We pay $$ for that convenience without realizing that foreign private companies are gearing up to control the multimillion-dollar market to “upgrade” the nation's ancient water and sanitation systems.
Think. Coastal Cartagena was the first of about 50 cities and towns to privatize its water in Colombia. The capital Bogotá bucked the privatization trend, refused World Bank money and transformed its public utility into the most successful in Colombia. Which direction shall we go? Which ever course we decide on it is vital that we realize that MONOPOLY and CORRUPTION are the two ugly faces of underdevelopment.
http://www.adb.org/Media/Articles/2008/12728-public-private-sector-cooperation/JPR-ADB-OECD-CPIB.pdf
The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project
reports aggregate and individual governance indicators for 212 countries and territories over the period 1996–2007, for six dimensions of governance:
1. Voice and Accountability
2. Political Stability and Absence of Violence
3. Government Effectiveness
Regulatory Quality
4. Rule of Law
5. Control of Corruption
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