Can You Drink Plastic?

Why are these goals so difficult to attain? One, three-quarters of all water resources in developing countries (80 per cent in India) are used for agriculture which sustains the poor. Two, even from the inadequate infrastructure that exists in developing countries, three-quarters of the water leaks out or is maintained badly. According to environment secretary Pradipto Ghosh, who was India's representative at the conference, in major agrarian states in the north, groundwater is the source of 85 per cent of irrigation. And water withdrawal is twice the rate of aquifer recharge.

Three, rapid urban expansion also stresses water sources. Within a generation, some two billion people will be added to urban populations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Most of them will live in slums. Ghosh quotes the Tenth Plan estimate of housing shortage of 23 million. This is apart from the fact that only half of the homes are permanent. The urban sector for instance contributes 60 per cent of the gdp and over 90 per cent of central revenues in India yet gets only 17 per cent water, most of it at very subsidised rate. Urban food and lifestyle preferences too are more water-intensive, making a mockery of the subsidy.

Ghosh feels the quality of water and surface pollution issues are more important than subsidy issues. "We recognise that (water) projects must be financially viable. But the provision of safe drinking water to our citizens cannot be conditional upon their ability to pay." It's here that the fourth reason assumes the greatest importance: availability of financial resources and technology transfer.

Sachs agrees. "Countries need to do an MDG assessment, write a policy framework, finance a plan through 2015 and finally a strategy for independent monitoring and evaluation. At the global level, we need a major rise in financing under ODA—$14 to $20 billion a year, a doubling of ODA during 2005-15 and their compatibility with the goals and commitments from scientific bodies and leading mncs to support these."

To meet the three MDGs, an investment of nearly $30 billion is needed per year. Currently, the developing countries spend nearly $15 billion, two-thirds of it from their pockets. It's essential to find this extra money and also ensure that not a penny invested in such programmes is wasted.

India gets very little ODA—something like 35 cents per capita on water and sanitation. Instead of more aid, India is now seeking cheap water technologies on the lines of the WTO proposal on open access to life-saving drugs. The proposal was floated at the CSD review session and will be discussed at the nex WTO meet.

Public-private partnerships were also stressed despite their limited success so far. But more important, said the Peruvian development expert and writer Hernando De Soto and UN-Habitat chief executive Anna Tibaijuka, was the role of property law in releasing the potential of peoples' assets and obtaining access to credits, in other words, security of tenure.

Chair Brende had the final word. "The cost of not acting on these promises would be more than the cost of acting," he said. In a world where every year $900 billion is spent on armaments and $6 billion on development, will such warnings fall again on deaf ears?