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United nations water conference action planAsit K. Biswasab

a President of the International Society of Ecological Modelling, Oxford, UK b Vice-President of theInternational Association for Clean Technology, Oxford, UK

To cite this Article Biswas, Asit K.(1988) 'United nations water conference action plan', International Journal of WaterResources Development, 4: 3, 148 — 159To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/07900628808722385URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07900628808722385

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United Nations Water ConferenceAction Plan

Implementation over the past decade

Asit K. Biswas

The United Nations convened a Water Conference at Mar del Plata, Argentina, inMarch 1977. This conference, the first ever of its kind, was attended by 116governments at the highest decision-making level in the area of water as well as bynumerous international and non-governmental organizations. It approved anAction Plan. This paper reviews progress in the implementation of the Action Plana decade later.

More than 2000 years ago a Tamil epic recorded theadvice of a sage to his Indian king: 'If you wish toestablish your reputation among your people, storegreat quantities of water in the valleys of yourkingdom: those who fail to store water will also failto store their glory.' The advice of the sage to storewater to alleviate the effects of potential droughts,which implies efficient water management, is ifanything more important today than it was then. Thecrisis that has affected Africa in recent yearsunequivocally indicates the urgent necessity andimportance of more efficient management of waterresources.

Anticipating the increasing importance of the roleof water management to sustain and enhancedevelopment processes in the future, the Committeeon Natural Resources (CNR) of the United Nationsconsidered in its first session in New York in 1971the convening of a water conference under the aegisof the United Nations. The initial objective was to

Dr Asit K. Biswas is President of the International Societyof Ecological Modelling, President-elect of the Interna-tional Water Resources Association and Vice-President ofthe International Association for Clean Technology. Hecan be contacted at 76 Woodstock Close, Oxford OX28DD, UK.

provide a forum where diverse experiences in watermanagement from various countries could be profit-ably discussed and existing technologies could bereviewed in order to improve the future availabilityof water for humanity and increase the process ofinternational cooperation in the area of watermanagement. The CNR further elaborated theobjectives of the proposed conference during itssecond and third sessions to incorporate theformulation of water policies at national andinternational levels to cope with potential futureshortages and to review the economic implications ofthe future demand and availability of water.Furthermore, it was agreed that the conferencewould be directed primarily at water policy-makersand would consider not only specific economic andadministrative aspects of water resources manage-ment and development but also technical aspects.

In May 1973 the Economic and Social Council(ECOSOC) of the United Nations approved theholding of the water conference and also endorsedthe provisional agenda. This, in turn, was endorsedby the United Nations General Assembly inDecember 1975 in Resolution 3513 (XXX).

The main purpose of the conference was topromote a level of preparedness nationally andinternationally which would help the world avoid a

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UN Water Conference Action Plan: Asit K. Biswas

water crisis of global dimensions by the end of thepresent century. It was to deal with the problem ofensuring that the world had an adequate supply ofwater, of good quality, to meet the needs of a globalpopulation which is not only growing but alsoseeking improved economic and social conditions forall.

The United Nations Water Conference wasconvened at Mar del Plata, Argentina, from 14 to 25March 1977. More than 1500 participants attended,representing 116 governments, the various UnitedNations agencies and organizations, intergovern-mental organizations, international river commis-sions, 58 non-governmental organizations andobservers from several national liberation move-ments.

The Conference secretariat itself prepared manydocuments. Probably the two most importantdocuments produced were Resources and Needs:Assessment of the World Water Situation and Presentand Future Activities of the United Nations System inWater Resources Development. The first documentprovided a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis ofthe world water situation in terms of resourceavailability, demand and use. The second documentwas the first and the most comprehensive andintegrated review of its kind ever carried out by theUnited Nations system on any subject. It alsoidentified a series of constraints which make thework of the UN in the area of water less effectiveand should therefore be rectified.

The conference approved a final action plan,subsequently termed the Mar del Plata Action Plan,in two parts: recommendations that covered all theessential components of water management (assess-ment; use and efficiency; environment, health andpollution control; policy, planning and management;natural hazards; public information, education,training and research; and regional and internationalcooperation), and 12 resolutions on a wide range ofsubject areas.

The conference produced a wealth of informationon various aspects of water management as well ascountry- and region-specific data and information.For the first time many countries prepared nationalreports on the availability and use of water as well asreviews of management practices. Several countriesput in motion processes to assess the distribution ofsurface and groundwater resources, and patterns ofwater demand and use for various purposes, many ofwhich have continued ever since. Numerous coun-tries also prepared thematic papers highlighting theirexperiences in various policy-related areas coveredby the agenda. Some 260 thematic papers weresubmitted to the conference.

In addition, a parallel scientific meeting was heldin Mar del Plata on technical aspects of watermanagement. Distinguished international and na-tional experts participated and presented numerouspapers at this meeting. These as well as reportsprepared by various non-governmental organiza-tions amply supplemented the official conferencedocuments. Comprehensive and realistic analyses ofthe Water Conference can be found elsewhere(M. R. Biswas, 1978; Fano, 1977).

It would however, be an error to consider theWater Conference as an unique event of the 1970s.It was an integral part of a series of mega-conferences sponsored by the United Nations duringthe period 1972-81 on critical global issues. All ofthese intergovernmental conferences were aimed atthe highest policy-makers in their respective fields.The Water Conference was preceded by theConferences on the Human Environment in Stock-holm in 1972, on Population in Bucharest in 1974, onFood in Rome in 1974, and on Human Settlementsin Vancouver in 1976. Three more similar confer-ences were held following the Water Conference, onDesertification in Nairobi in 1977, on Science andTechnology for Development in Vienna in 1979 andon New and Renewable Sources of Energy inNairobi in 1981. In retrospect, as one of the three orfour people who were privileged to attend all theseworld conferences, it is clear to this author that eachconference was affected by those preceding it andeach in turn had an impact on the conferences thatfollowed. This, however, is proper since the primaryfoci of all the conferences were interrelated:environment, population, food, human settlements,water, desertification, science and technology, re-newable energy. For example, it would be acomparatively simple task to show that water is oneof the major interconnecting links that has a directinfluence on all the other subjects of the worldconferences.

Achievements of the Water ConferenceThe Water Conference was held exactly a decadeago. In a sense, the tenth anniversary of the WaterConference should be considered to be an importantevent which can rekindle the spirit of Mar del Plataand by so doing strengthen the commitment ofgovernments to water management and simul-taneously indicate to the people of the world theimportance and relevance of efficient water manage-ment.

Viewed from any direction, the Mar del Plataconference was an important benchmark in the fieldof water management. Accordingly, during its tenth

WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT Volume 4 Number 3 September 1988 149



anniversary, it is appropriate to analyse whatimpacts it has had on the water managementpractices of national governments and internationalorganizations and to review what it has achieved.

Before we attempt to analyse the impacts andreview the achievements, it is useful to ask what itshopes and aspirations were. Here it is worth quotingfrom the opening statement to the conference of itsSecretary-General, Yehia Abdel Mageed of Sudan:

It was hoped that the Water Conference would mark thebeginning of a new era in the history of water developmentin the world and that it would engender a new spirit ofdedication for the betterment of all people - creating anew climate for a wiser appreciation of these criticalproblems, generating a greater flow of funds through thechannels of international financial assistance towards thecause of development and in general making a finercommitment, on the part of all concerned, to establish areal breakthrough, so that our planet would be a betterplace to live. (Mageed, 1977)

There is no doubt that the Water Conferencesensitized the international community to theproblems and complexities of efficient water man-agement (A. K. Biswas, 1983a). Its timing for-tuitously turned out to be right. When it was firstproposed in 1971, its proponents little realized theseverity of the emerging food and energy crises - thefirst natural, due the widespread droughts, and theother manmade — and the global problem of theavailability of clean drinking water for all. The fullimplications as well as the magnitude of these threedifficult issues could not have been readily realizedin 1971. As the era of cheap energy drew to a close inOctober 1973 and as severe droughts struck inseveral countries around the same time, manynations started to view water development in a newlight. Since hydropower generation and irrigationare compatible uses of water (hydropower genera-tion does not consume water but globally agricultureaccounts for 80% of all water used) and both usescan be satisfied concurrently with appropriatereservoir operation policies, governments quicklyrealized the importance of water management as amajor input into the development process under thechanging economic regime.

What did the Water Conference actually achieve?If we want to answer this question in terms ofrigorous scientific analyses of facts, no comprehen-sive answer is possible. Conceptually it can beargued that the impacts of the conference can beidentified by the difference between what hashappened during the decade 1977-86 and whatwould have happened if no such conference hadtaken place. Unfortunately no methodology isavailable which can state with any degree of

reliability what would have happened without theconference. Under these circumstances, a better andcertainly more meaningful approach would probablybe to review the extent of implementation of theMar del Plata Action Plan, irrespective of whetherthese actions had directly stemmed from the WaterConference. This is the approach that has beentaken in this paper.

Implementation of the Action PlanDuring the preparatory process and at the confer-ence itself, several delegations highlighted the issueof an 'implementation gap'. Fears were expressedthat the results of such a mammoth effort could beimpaired in the absence of an effective mechanismfor implementation (Mageed, 1982). The variousdelegations and officials were unanimous in theirviews that every effort should be made to eliminatethe implementation gap in order that the commit-ments made at the conference could be fullyrealized. Thus, during the reporting of the results ofthe conference to the fifth session of the CNR inMay 1977 it was emphasized that the litmus test ofthe earnestness with which the resolutions of theconference were considered and adopted would bethe rigour and promptness with which they weresubsequently implemented by the various concernedparties.

We now have reasonably good information onprogress in the implementation of the Mar del PlataAction Plan. The following analysis is based on aquestionnaire survey carried out by the Inter-secretariat Group for Water Resources of theAdministrative Committee on Coordination (ACC)of the United Nations, supplemented by thisauthor's personal observations and discussions dur-ing numerous missions to various countries.

The 30-page questionnaire was transmitted to thegovernments by the Secretary-General of the UnitedNations by a note verbale of 1 November 1983.Ninety-one governments returned this question-naire, and their analysis was presented to the CNRduring its ninth session in April 1985 (Report of theSecretary-General, 1985a).

The questionnaire did not consider progress in theimplementation of the recommendations in the areaof community water supply since the World HealthOrganization (WHO) had developed a monitoringsystem based on information provided by govern-ments in the form of country report digests. So fartwo post-conference surveys have been conductedby the WHO, one in 1980 to establish the baselinedata for the International Drinking Water Supplyand Sanitation Decade and the other for 1983.

150 WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT Volume 4 Number 3 September 1988



Information on China was not included, and thesurveys suffered from nearly all of the problemsassociated with similar earlier WHO surveys whichhave been discussed in detail elsewhere (A. K.Biswas, 1981). Because of the quality of the data,the extent of general conclusions that can be drawnfrom the WHO database is somewhat limited(Report of the Secretary-General, 1985b). In addi-tion, there is some discrepancy between dataprovided in the Secretary-General's report (1985b)and by the WHO (1986) based on the same surveys.

Planning, management and institutional aspectsThe Action Plan recommended that each countryshould formulate and keep under review a generalstatement of national water policy in relation to theuse, management and conservation of water, as aframework for planning and implementing specificprogrammes and measures for efficient operation ofschemes. On the basis of the questionnaire survey,currently some 75% of developing countries and65% of developed countries have national waterpolicy statements. Little more than 50% of develop-ing countries reporting acknowledged the existenceof national master plans, and the situation isespecially unsatisfactory in Africa, where only 18%of countries have such plans. It is, however,heartening to note that a large proportion ofcountries without master plans have now embarkedon their preparation.

The preparation of national master plans is notenough. Many of the plans the author had anopportunity to review had been poorly formulatedfor a variety of reasons, among which are the lack ofadequate indigenous expertise, poor choice of theforeign consultants who have assisted in the develop-ment of such plans, too much emphasis onengineering aspects and not enough on social,economic, environmental, legal and institutionalaspects, and a theoretical rather than practicalorientation. Accordingly, some of the master plansformulated thus far are likely to be of limited useunless they are modified significantly. It is probablyhigh time for an objective review of some selectednational master plans to identify their strongest andpoorest components, so that countries that are nowconsidering their formulation do not make the samemistakes again. The preparation of practical guide-lines for the formulation of national master plans foruse by developing countries would be a step in theright direction.

Some countries are also periodically reviewingtheir master plans and adjusting priorities andtargets in order to keep pace with changing national

and international conditions. This process wasadvocated by the Action Plan.

With respect to cost recovery from water projects,the general experience appears to be that only afraction of the total capital and recurrent costs arebeing recovered in developing countries. In manyinstances, cost recovery does not even account forthe total operation and maintenance (O&M) ex-penditures, which often means that the systems arenot being efficiently maintained due to lack ofresources. This reduces the performance of theprojects, and anticipated benefits are often notforthcoming. The inadequate generation of financialresources has often led to the deferral of O&Mactivities to future years. The information availableat present unambiguously indicates that this isneither a viable policy nor an economic propositionsince not only does it reduce the efficiency of watermanagement systems but also the final cost ofrehabilitation is significantly higher than the cumula-tive O&M costs would have been had they beenproperly carried out. Experience from Mali indicatesthat, after 10 years of neglect, the rehabilitationcosts for major water projects are roughly equivalentto 10 times the combined appropriate annual O&Mcosts (A. K. Biswas, 1986a).

When national water legislation is considered, thequestionnaire survey indicated that around one thirdof African countries, 40% of Latin American andCaribbean countries and two thirds of Asian andPacific countries felt that existing legislation isadequate and compatible with the long-term objec-tives of their national economic and social develop-ment plans. Furthermore, whereas in the LatinAmerican and Caribbean region nearly all countriesare at present amending or revising their legislation,only about half the African countries reportedsimilar progress. All the European countries ex-pressed a high rate of satisfaction with existinglegislation and its state of revision.

The Water Conference emphasized the need for'real coordination' among all bodies responsible forthe investigation, development and management ofwater resources as well as the establishment ofefficient water authorities. Overall 73% of develop-ing countries now have central bodies or mechan-isms to coordinate activities at national level. Incontrast, only 61% of the developed countriesresponding to the survey indicated the existence ofsimilar national coordinating mechanisms. The LatinAmerican and Caribbean region had the highestpercentage of countries (87%) with such mechan-isms, whereas the Western Asian region had thelowest at 50%. Nearly all developing countries thatcurrently do not have such mechanisms have plans to




establish them in the future, but similar interestcannot be discovered in developed countries. Whatnow needs to be done is to review the performanceof these mechanisms in order to identify appropriatemeasures to improve their efficiency.

Assessment of water resourcesThis is probably one of the important areas whereprogress since the Water Conference has been mostdisheartening. On the basis of available informationit is 'doubtful whether there has been any netimprovement in the overall situation' (Report of theSecretary-General, 1985a). Shortage of funds andtrained manpower and related resources has made itdifficult even to sustain earlier assessment program-mes, let alone improve them. This is especially truefor many sub-Saharan countries where droughts andother catastrophes have played havoc with nationaleconomies. For example, climatological data collec-tion in Chad came to a halt for several years for allpractical purposes, and many stations have beenclosed in recent years (A. K. Biswas, 1986b).Without reliable assessment activities it is difficult tosee how water resources can be efficiently managed.

The adequacy of collection of time-series data indeveloping countries and their perceived reliabilityvaried from one parameter to another, as shown inTable 1.

All developed countries and 76% of developingcountries now use computers to process, store andretrieve data on precipitation and surface water.Computer usages drop to 78% of developed and58% of developing countries for groundwater; thecorresponding statistic for Africa is 36%. Ondissemination of data collected the results aresomewhat mixed. The Latin American and Carib-bean region leads with respect to the existence andadequacy of mechanisms to disseminate data onprecipitation and surface water (Western Asia is theworst), but ranks lowest with respect to ground-water. Most countries are planning to improve theirprocesses for data processing, storage, retrieval anddissemination.

Table 1. Adequacy and reliability of time-series data in developingcountries (percentage of respondents).

PrecipitationSurface waterEvaporationWater qualityGroundwater

Adequacy

5540313025

Reliability

6960435552

Community water supplyUndoubtedly the issue that has received themaximum publicity from the Action Plan is com-munity water supply because of the launching of theInternational Drinking Water Supply and SanitationDecade by the General Assembly on 10 November1980. The Decade was a recommendation of theConference.

The Action Plan had recommended that eachcountry should develop national plans and program-mes for community water supply and also identifyintermediate milestones. According to the WHO,only nine countries had developed Decade plans byearly 1981, but this number had mushroomed to 59by the end of 1983. Another 31 countries stated thattheir plans were at various stages of preparation. Allthe 59 countries with Decade plans and 17 of the 31countries preparing plans had stipulated their targetsby the end of 1983. It should, however, be noted thatby this time 22 countries had modified their targets,and had mostly downgraded them since the originaltargets were too ambitious. It is equally clear that,on the basis of progress made thus far, many othercountries will find their targets are also overambi-tious and thus be unable to achieve them by 1990.Hence many more countries will either have to scaledown their targets to more realistic levels or acceptthe fact that they are unlikely to be realized.

On the basis of information available from theWHO for 1980 and 1983, and general comparison ofdata from all countries reporting in any of thesurveys conducted, a picture of global coverage canbe drawn up as illustrated in Table 2. Because of theproblems associated with the WHO's data collectionprocesses (A. K. Biswas, 1981), the figures in Table2 should be taken as indicative rather thanauthoritative. On this basis the following statementscan be made:

• Even though the percentage of people in urbanareas that had access to clean water increased byonly 1% from 1980 to 1983, from 70% to 71%,this still meant that some 90 million additionalpeople were covered because of rapid popula-tion increases in the urban areas of developingcountries.

• The percentage of people receiving drinkingwater supplies in rural areas increased from 27%in 1980 to 41% in 1983. Some 250 millionadditional people were covered during thisperiod.

• The above statements hide major regionaldisparities. For example, the percentage ofpeople having access to clean water in the urban




Table 2 Water supply service (to population in millions) by regions, 1980 and 1983.

Regions

AfricaUrbanRuralTotal

Asia and the Pacific (excluding China)UrbanRuralTotal

Latin America and the CaribbeanUrbanRuralTotal

Western AsiaUrbanRuralTotal

TotalsUrbanRuralTotal

Total1980

135334469

42810641492

234124358

272148

82415432367

1983

160356516

49311091602

254126380

302454

93716152552

CoverageNo %

8973162

278277555

18352235

25934

575411986

662234

652637

784266

944169

702742

No

91103194

330488818

21562277

291241

665665

1330

%

572938

674451

854973

955076

714152

Source: Report of the Secretary-General (1985b).

areas of Africa actually declined from 66% to57% during the period. This is the only declinein any region.

• A major issue has to be the operationaleffectiveness of the water supply provided. Frompersonal visits to several countries and otherstudies, it is evident that many sources havebroken down, even though the countries con-cerned have continued to claim that they wereoperational.1 Unfortunately the published dataavailable provide no information on the presentstatus of projects, a shortcoming that needs to berectified.

The major constraints upon implementing theDecade more effectively, as identified by the WHOmonitoring system, are funding limitations, inadequ-ate operation and maintenance, lack of trainedpersonnel, both professional and sub-professional,insufficient cost recovery, use of inappropriate

1 An example of this can be seen in Maharastra, India, a state thathas consistently claimed to be the best in terms of handpumpinstallation and maintenance, and where the India Mark IIhandpump programme began about 20 years ago. During myevaluation of the Bhima Command Area Development Projectfor the International Fund for Agricultural Development(IFAD), I found that nearly one third of the pumps were notoperational, no government maintenance personnel could befound at village level, there were average delays of six months inthe repair of broken handpumps, and nine out of ten handpumpsites had either extremely poor drainage or none at all (A. K.Biswas, 1983b).

technologies and poor planning. Naturally theimportance of these constraints varies from oneregion to another. For example, African countriesconsider lack of available funds to be the mostimportant constraint, whereas Western Asia rankslack of trained personnel as the most critical.

Agricultural water useAccording to the documents prepared for the WaterConference, agriculture is the largest user of water,accounting for some 80% of world consumption.The urgent necessity of instituting proper watercontrol to sustain and enhance agricultural produc-tion has been graphically illustrated by the catas-trophic impact of the recent droughts in manysub-Saharan African countries.

The importance of irrigation is clearly demons-trated by the fact that some 50-60% of the increasein agricultural production during the period 1960 to1980 has been estimated to have come from eithernew or rehabilitated irrigated areas. On the basis ofthe responses received to the questionnaire surveyfrom 54 developing countries, nearly half (25countries) believe that new and improved irrigationwill contribute to less than 25% of the total plannedincrease in agricultural production, another 15countries expect the corresponding estimate to be25-50% and the rest (14 countries) expect it to be50-75%.

The perceptions of constraints to irrigation de-velopment faced by various developing regions vary




Table 3. Percentage of countries by region that consider listedconstraints to irrigation development to be serious or very serious.

Shortage offinancial resources

Lack of equipment

Lack of qualifiedmanpower

Institutionaldeficiencies

Africa

100

86

75

55

Asia andPacific

79

64

42

33

LatinAmerica andCaribbean

_

58

25'

50

DevelopingEurope

67

20

0

20

Source: Report of the Secretary-General (1985a).

significantly from one another.- The percentage ofcountries in a region that consider various listedconstraints to be very severe or severe is given inTable 3.

An interesting post-Conference development hasbeen the trend to establish targets for the variousfacets of agricultural water use, even though thesewere not specifically recommended in the ActionPlan. Table 4 shows the percentage of developingcountries that have established targets in the fields ofnew and rehabilitated irrigation, flood protection,drainage and reclamation, and aquaculture.

Shared water resources

The rational management of shared water resourcesis probably one of the most difficult tasks in the areaof water management because of the inherentadditional political, institutional and legal complex-ities. In a retrospective analysis of the WaterConference, its Secretary-General, Yehia AbdelMageed, said:

If time and budget had permitted, two other documentswould have proved most useful in placing, more forcefully,before the Conference the questions of financial arrange-ments and shared water resources. It was felt that both

Table 4. Percentage of developing countries establishing targets inspecific areas, 1977-90.

1977-80 1980-85 1985-90

Developing of new irrigation 73 84 88

Rehabilitation of existingirrigation 65 74 79Flood protection in relationto agricultural development 43 60 67

Drainage and reclamation 47 69 75

Introduction to aquaculture 42 59 63

Source: Report of the Secretary-General (1985a).

these areas were not tackled satisfactorily at the Confer-ence. (Mageed, 1982)

In terms of general cooperation concerning develop-ment of water resources shared by more than onecountry, much progress can be reported sinceseveral bilateral and/or multilateral agreements havebeen concluded in the area of surface water, egrivers and lakes. Commensurate progress has notbeen made in the area of groundwater, eg sharedaquifers.

Of the countries returning the questionnaire, 67%of developing countries and 86% of industrializednations reported successful completion of bilateraland/or multilateral agreements on the managementof shared water resources. In addition, some threequarters of the African countries and two thirds ofthe Asian and European countries reported thatfurther bilateral and/or multilateral negotiationswere taking place.

There were several instances of multi-countrycollaboration in Africa using the river basin as a unitfor development. For example, an agreement toestablish an organization for the management anddevelopment of the Kagera river basin was reachedin August 1977, and similarly a convention in 1980created the Niger Basin Authority. Work is nowunder way for a development plan for the Zambeziriver basin.

While it is accepted that creation of a multi-country river basin management institution isgenerally a less complex and time-consuming taskthan preparing a basinwide management plan andthen getting the countries concerned to accept it, it isstill an important and often essential step towardssuccessful treaty negotiations.

The Intergovernment Working Group of Expertson Natural Resources Shared by Two or MoreStates, convened by the United Nations Environ-ment Programme, has prepared principles of con-duct for the guidance of governments for theconservation and harmonious utilization of sharednatural resources. Many of these guidelines arebased on experience in the management of sharedwater resources. Fourteen countries have used theseprinciples in negotiations, and another eight plan touse them in the near future.

Environment and healthMuch progress can be reported during the pastdecade on the environmental and health aspects ofwater management. The provision of clean drinkingwater and better sanitation to a constantly increasingnumber of people, which had been discussed earlier,naturally had immeasurably positive environmentaland health benefits.




Since 1977 many developing countries have madeit mandatory to prepare environmental impactassessments before specific water developmentprojects can be authorized. Thus, for the first time inhistory, a developing country - India - rejected aproposal to build a dam in Silent Valley solely onenvironmental grounds, since it would have inun-dated a unique tropical forest.

Either through institutional machinery set upduring the past 10 years to consider environmentalissues or through appropriate water-related minis-tries, increasing numbers of developing countries aregiving environmental issues due consideration in thedecision-making process. In this regard, the attemptby the United Nations Environment Programme toprepare practical guidelines for environmentallysound water management in developing countries isto be welcomed, since the lack of such appropriateand authoritative guidelines is seriously hinderingwork in most developing countries.

Steady progress can be reported in developingcountries in controlling water pollution during thepast decade through better water quality datacollection and legal-institutional steps like settingand enforcing water quality standards and increasingpublic awareness of the environmental and healthcosts of water pollution. This is demonstrated by thefact that some 60% of all pollution control spendingat present, on a global basis, is in the area of waterpollution. India's recently launched and highlypublicized campaign to clean up the river Ganges is aspectacular attempt to control water pollution in alarge river.

Reliable data on water pollution control expendi-tures by countries or regions are not available atpresent, but attempts have been made to estimatethem. One such estimate is shown in Table 5. Suchestimates should be taken as indicative rather thanauthoritative. They generally show increasing ex-penditure, both in developed and developing coun-tries, to control water pollution.

Other recommendations of the Action PlanIn addition to the aspects already discussed, the Mardel Plata Action Plan made recommendations in avariety of other areas ranging from fisheries, inlandnavigation and industrial water use to the questionof the Panama Canal Zone and water policies in theoccupied territories. Because of space constraints,only achievements in selected areas of the ActionPlan are discussed here. In addition, progress in thearea of education, training and public information, atopic which now warrants immediate further atten-tion, will be briefly discussed.

Table 5. Capital expenditure on water pollution control by majorregions (in million US dollars at 1975 prices), 1976-90.

North AmericaLatin AmericaEuropean Community (EC)Non-EC Western EuropeEastern EuropeAfrica and the Middle EastAsiaOceania

1976

115351584836424675 62113017985

576

1979

13 880188791902365669115879 095

568

1985

15 8552717

12280318991112495

12876883

1990

177703 848

143093726

111573473

165931079

Source: Gross (1986).

During the past decade there has been gradualimprovement at all the levels of skill and expertise'necessary for water management in most developingcountries, but there has been a deterioration incertain countries as well. Overall, in all areas ofmanpower, 54% of countries replying to this issuereported that the manpower situation had improved,whereas 11% felt that it had deteriorated; the restindicated that the situation has not changed signifi-cantly. In spite of the gradual overall improvement,shown in Table 6, nearly one in five of all developingcountries indicated that the availability of adequatemanpower is still critical at all skill and expert levels,and especially so for skilled workers, highertechnicians and research scientists.

Selected areas requiring improved efficiencyin managementIn spite of the impressive progress that has beenmade in water management during the past decade,much still remains to be done in several importantareas. Only five selected areas will be brieflydiscussed here.

Mobilization of financial resourcesIf the Action Plan is to be satisfactorily imple-mented, developing countries must mobilize adequ-ate financial resources by internal and externalmeans. However, with competing demands for alltypes of financial resources from a variety ofworthwhile causes, only certain amounts of internaland external resources are available for watermanagement.

It should be noted that shortly after the WaterConference the world economy witnessed a seriousrecession. Both developed and developing econo-mies suffered varied degrees of recession. Thesituation was more serious for developing countries,which as a group suffered a per capita decline inoutput in each of the first three years of this decade.




Africa was hit harder than other regions. From 1970to 1984 public and publicly guaranteed debt for thesub-Saharan African countries increased from$5,426 billion to $58,828 billion, and the combinedexternal debts of Africa now exceed $125 billion.The peoples of 25 countries in low-income Africa arepoorer today than in 1980, and thus for the first timesince the Second World War a whole region hassuffered retrogression over a generation.

The amounts of investment required for watermanagement, both capital costs and subsequentoperation and management costs, are significant. Ina paper prepared for the Water Conference theWHO, with initial assistance from the World Bank,estimated that the investment necessary to meet thetarget set for cummunity water supply of clean waterfor all by 1990 would be $92.2 billion. In 1980 theWorld Bank estimated that, assuming completeurban and rural coverage with the urban populationbeing 'served at commonly accepted levels of houseconnections for water and sewerage and the ruralpopulation at a lower standard of service', the totalcosts would be more than $600 billion. Using a'wider mix of service levels and the use of moreappropriate technologies', the Bank provided asecond option of $300 billion or less.

This $300 billion cost is only for new installations:it does not include any estimates for operation andmaintenance. In addition, like earlier estimates, itwill again prove to be a serious underestimate.However, even if it is assumed to be correct, itmeans an investment of $82.2 million every day ofthe decade for new drinking water installationsalone; other aspects of water management are notincluded.

Similarly, in a paper on irrigation developmentprepared for the conference the FAO estimatedinvestment requirements for irrigation for develop-

ing market economy countries at $97.8 billion. Thisagain is a serious underestimate, since it is no longeruncommon to find irrigation development costs inAfrica in the range of $15 000-$20 000 per ha, ifinfrastructural development costs and technical andproduction support services costs are included. Ifofficial rates of exchange are used, some irrigationprojects in Ghana have cost as much as$40000-$50000perha.

The above figures are given primarily to show thatthe financial resources necessary for efficient waterresources management and development are sub-stantial. There is no point in making the rhetoricalstatement that if only 1% of global expenditures onarmaments could be channelled to water manage-ment, financial problems would be resolved. This isbecause all the current indications are that arma-ment expenditures are likely to increase and notdecrease, at least for the foreseeable future. Even ifthe costs, by some miracle, are reduced there are somany other competing demands for additionalfinancial resources that only a small fraction canrealistically be expected for water management.

Poor cost recovery in water projects in developingcountries also contributes to additional fundinglimitations. What are urgently needed are realisticplans for mobilizing financial resources at bothnational and international levels which not onlyinclude capital investment costs but also adequateoperation and management costs of all the waterprojects constructed.

Development and training of human resourcesThe lack of adequately trained human resources is aserious constraint to efficient management of waterresources in most developing countries. Whiletraditional water development projects based onsimple technology and requiring low investment

Table 6. Education and training in developing countries measured by the availability and adequacy of manpower between the periods1977-80 and 1980-84 (percentage of respondents).

Level of skill and expertise

Skilled workers and technicians

Higher technicians

Engineers and other university-educated specialists

Research scientists

Administrators, policy-makers,planners and lawyers

Average

Improved

1977-80

5150

59

25

43

1980-84

53

65

64

43

44

54

Deteriorated

1977-80 1980-84

8

18

7

2

5

9

10

13

16

8

11

No significantchange

1977-80 1980-84

41

32

34

73

52

37

25

24

41

48

35

Situationcurrentlycritical(no of countries)

13

15

13

15

11

35



UN Water Conference Action Plan:Asit K. Biswas

have long been practised at suitable locations, theintroduction of large-scale development projectsrequiring simultaneously formal irrigation for cropproduction, hydroelectric power generation andflood control necessitates extensive physical andsocial infrastructures, efficient construction andmanagement practices and the use of appropriatetechnology. Trained personnel are necessary at allstages of such projects.

On a long-term basis, training is probably one ofthe most important requirements for efficient watermanagement. Current evidence indicates that thelack of trained and experienced personnel hastended to increase the cost of water projects and atthe same time reduce their efficiency. For example,if irrigation projects are considered, the lack oftrained management personnel and the absence offarmers experienced in irrigated agriculture have notonly tended to increase irrigation costs but have alsoreduced the benefits expected of the schemes. Inaddition, the lack of technicians and other similartrained personnel at lower levels of expertise iscreating serious management bottlenecks.

The use of expatriate staff has been a mixedblessing to developing countries. On the positiveside, they have contributed considerably to theplanning, construction and management of waterprojects. On the negative side, they are not onlyvery expensive but also in most cases the training ofindigenous personnel who were supposed to havetaken over from their expatriate counterparts hasnot been satisfactory. Often such training andmanpower development has not taken place at all, asin the 1250 ha Kou Project in Burkina Faso, whereat one time there were 60 expatriates but in fiveyears not a single African staff member had receivedany training (A. K. Biswas, 1986a). Consequently,when the expatriate staff members leave, projectperformances start to decline rapidly.

An important aspect of the development andmobilization of human resources that has notreceived adequate attention thus far is the underem-ployment and ineffective use of trained manpower inseveral developing countries. In these countries,generally speaking, an adequate pool of trainedmanpower exists, but because of lack of incentives,the inability of management to motivate staff,excessive institutional red tape and other relatedreasons, staff members often do not develop, orseldom work at their full potential. While multilater-al and bilateral organizations have now mostlystarted to give increasing attention to trainingrequirements, commensurate interest in improvingoverall managerial skills is generally lacking. Ifmanagerial skills can be improved - and the scope

for such improvement is substantial - there is nodoubt that more can be achieved in most countrieswith the currently available financial and humanresources. The strengthening of managerial skillsrequires the urgent attention of all parties con-cerned.

Development and application of appropriatetechnologyEfficient water management depends not only onpeople, but also on the resources and technologythey have access to, and the sociocultural-institu-tional framework within which these are utilized(Biswas and Biswas, 1985; Fano, 1981). By itself,technology employed in pursuit of rational watermanagement is neutral, but how it is used candetermine the success or failure of projects. Thechoice of technology depends on many factors, andoften what may be considered the most appropriatetechnology in one country turns out to be mostinappropriate for solving almost identical problemsin another. A typical example is the failure of septictanks in Bhutan, for sociocultural reasons, eventhough the same designs had been successfully usedin India for decades (A. K. Biswas, 1986c). Thismeans that while South-South technology transferin general may make a great deal of sense, it shouldnot be axiomatically assumed that such directtransfers will present no serious problems. Develop-ing countries are not all the same: they are atdifferent stages of development and may havedifferent social, cultural and institutional back-grounds.

Many instances can be cited where inappropriatetechnology is being imported to developing coun-tries from industrialized countries, through eitherbilateral or multilateral aid programmes, withoutcritical appraisal by either the donors or therecipients. Foreign consultants and contracts areoften used to plan, design and implement theprojects. In a large number of these cases they arenot fully familiar with the prevailing social, econo-mic, institutional and cultural norms of the develop-ing countries concerned, and accordingly they oftenuse criteria which are based on experience andknowledge gained in industrialized countries whichmay not be applicable locally. A typical example isthe design of waste stabilization ponds in manyMiddle Eastern countries, where evaporation lossesare neglected. While this makes sense in temperateclimates of developed countries, neglecting evapora-tion losses in the arid, hot climates of the MiddleEast leads not only to an unnecessary increase inproject costs but also the creation of a host of otherproblems.




Some attention has been paid during the pastdecade to elaborating the concept of appropriatetechnology, studying the problems and methodologyfor producing such technology, and developingcriteria and methodologies for selection of theoptimal results. In spite of these efforts there remainsome serious problems. As a recent World Bank(1986) analysis has bluntly stated, 'most observersagree that the technology shelf in sub-SaharanAfrica is nearly bare'. Accordingly more attentionneeds to be given to developing and using appropri-ate technology for efficient water managementunder site-specific conditions.

Conservation and enhancement of water quality,particularly groundwaterAs a general rule, nearly all developing countrieshave better expertise, databases and institutionalcapacity for the management of water quantity thanwater quality, even though water quantity andquality aspects are closely interrelated. While thereare some signs that interest in water qualitymanagement is increasing, much progress remains tobe made.

Many developing countries have still not formu-lated water quality standards to control the dis-charge of effluents to both surface and groundwater.Even in those countries where standards exist, themonitoring and enforcement of standards leavemuch to be desired. The use of policy alternativessuch as accelerated depreciation and tax incentivesto encourage investment in pollution control facili-ties requires further attention. Similarly, acceptanceof the 'polluter pays' principle, and ensuring thatpolluters do actually pay, will go a long way towardscontrolling water pollution.

In some developing countries considerable debateis now taking place on the tradeoffs between thebenefits accruing from pollution control and theincreased costs of economic activities. A rationalanalysis of any such tradeoff is somewhat complexsince the health and environmental costs of waterpollution are neither easy to quantify nor are theynecessarily paid by the polluters and their immediatecustomers. Since the environmental benefits ofpollution control are often long term and intangiblebut the costs are short term and tangible, they arenot easily handled with traditional economic toolssuch as benefit-cost analysis. While the enforcementof stringent water pollution control measures canunder certain circumstances prevent the continuingoperation of old industrial concerns, it can equallybe responsible for spawning a new industry acting onvarious aspects of pollution control, and thus createnew employment opportunities. The environmental,

economic, social and political implications of eachcase often need to be reviewed separately.

Groundwater has been a special problem in termsof management. There are fundamentally two majorproblems with respect to groundwater management:the higher rate of extraction than recharge, contri-buting to groundwater mining, and pollution ofgroundwater due to uncontrolled effluent dis-charges. Both are serious problems in manydeveloping countries, which have serious long-termrepercussions in terms of supporting developmentactivities.

Mitigation of natural hazards, especially droughtsandfloodsTwo of the important objectives of any waterdevelopment project are flood control and reducingthe impacts of droughts. The untold human sufferingcaused by the recent droughts in many sub-Saharancountries is well known. Similarly devastation due toperiodic floods can be witnessed in all developingcountries. Efficient water management can alleviatemany of these problems.

The impact of droughts, mid-season droughts andlow and unreliable rainfall on food production, andthus ultimately on human and livestock survival, canbe significantly alleviated by the introduction ofproper water control through irrigation. Food andforage production can be stabilized at a reasonablysustainable level, which could reduce the traumaassociated with boom-bust production cycles.However, the economies of many African countries,ravaged by recurring droughts and facing highexternal debt burdens, are somewhat unlikely togenerate enough internal resources to develop theiravailable water resources within the near or mediumterm. These countries will not only require externalassistance to marshal adequate resources to carryout water development but will also need toformulate rational water policies at national leveland will require the continuing political will andcommitment to implement them. All of these factorsare essential requirements for successful futurewater development and management.

For better flood and drought management, abetter and broader vision is necessary. Watermanagement by itself is unlikely to be enough. Weneed to look at land and water as an interacting unitif the adverse impacts of floods and droughts are tobe alleviated. In many instances the impacts areworsened due to human activities, which means thanbetter planning and control mechanisms need to beused. Watershed management, patterns of land use,a working warning system, and the existence ofadequate relief measures are normally essential for




the management of natural hazards like floods anddroughts.

ConclusionsA review of the past decade clearly indicates that themanagement of the limited water resources that areavailable has become increasingly important if weare to sustain and enhance our development efforts.Any future energy crisis which may occur cannot beresolved without water since no large-scale energydevelopment is possible without the use of largequantities of water. Similarly food crises cannot beresolved without better water control. An adequatequantity and quality of water is essential forpreserving human health and the health of theenvironment. With a large and growing humanpopulation, water has already become an essentialingredient for any development effort.

The United Nations has played an important rolein water development and management in recentdecades. Through a variety of water-related projectsin nearly all developing countries, the UN and itsassociated organizations have already made substan-tial contributions to developing and managingnational water resources. The United Nations WaterConference was by any account a milestone in thewater resources field, and the International WaterSupply and Sanitation Decade, which the conferencehad recommended, has already played a seminalrole in improving the quality of life of millions ofpeople through the provision of clean drinking waterand sanitation. Since water is an essential resourcefor food and energy production, health, fisheries andaquatic life, navigation, recreation and wildlifehabitats, the interest of the various UN agencies inthe area of water resources development willundoubtedly continue unabated in the foreseeablefuture. If anything, this interest is likely to heightenin the future so that the quality of life of a significantpercentage of the citizens of this world can bemeasurably improved.

Since the water available to a country is limited,and water has already become a major constraint todevelopment in many arid and semi-arid countries,we have no choice but to make our existing watermanagement practices more and more efficient. Thequestions are, how do we make our managementpractices more efficient not only in the five crucialissues discussed earlier but also in related areas, andhow can the solutions devised be realisticallyimplemented. This is where the inputs from expertscan be most helpful in terms of devising appropriatesolutions, and their assistance would then be equally

essential to implement them. Let us hope that withsuch inputs and cooperation we can report asignificant improvement in our water managementduring the coming decade compared to the pastdecade, even though the progress during the pastdecade has been both substantial and impressive.

ReferencesBiswas, Asit K. (ed) (1978). United Nations Water

Conference: Summary and Main Documents, Perga-mon Press, Oxford.

Biswas, Asit K. (1981) 'Water for the Third World',Foreign Affairs, Vol 60, No 1, pp 148-166.

Biswas, Asit K. (1983a). 'United Nations Water Confer-ence in Retrospect', Impact of Science on Society, No 2,pp 236-241.

Biswas, Asit K. (1983b). Evaluation of Bhima CommandArea Development Project, IFAD, Rome.

Biswas, Asit K. (1986a). 'Irrigation in Africa', Land UsePolicy, Vol 3, No 4, pp 269-285.

Biswas, Asit K. (1986b). 'Land Use in Africa', Land UsePolicy, Vol 3, No 4, pp 247-259.

Biswas, Asit K. (1986c). 'Water Supply and Sanitation inBhutan', Journal of the Indian Water Resources Society,Vol 6, No 2. pp 23-37.

Biswas, Margaret R. (1978). 'United Nations WaterConference: A Perspective', in A. K. Biswas (1978),pp 7-24.

Biswas, Margaret R., and Asit K. Biswas (1985). "TheGlobal Environment: Past, Present and Future',Resources Policy, Vol 11, No 1, pp 25-42.

Fano, Enzo (1977). 'Beyond the United Nations WaterConference', Natural Resources Forum, Vol 1, pp379-388.

Fano, Enzo (1981). 'The Role of International Commun-ity in the Drinking Water Supply and SanitationDecade', Natural Resources Forum, Vol 8, pp 261-269.

Gross, A. P. (1986). 'Water Quality ManagementWorldwide', Environmental Management, Vol 10, No1, pp 25-39.

Mageed, Yehia Abdel (1977). Opening Statement to theUnited Nations Water Conference, reproduced in A.K. Biswas (1978), pp 1-6.

Mageed, Yehia Abdel (1982). 'The United Nations WaterConference: The Scramble for Resolutions and theImplementation Gap', Mazingira, Vol 6, No 1, pp4-13.

Report of the Secretary-General (1985a). 'Water Re-sources: Progress Achieved and Prospects in theImplementation by Governments of the Mar del PlataAction Plan', Document E/C. 7/1985/5, United Na-tions, New York.

Report of the Secretary-General (1985b). 'Progress in theAttainment of the Goals of the International DrinkingWater Supply and Sanitation Decade', DocumentA/40/108, E/1985/49, United Nations, New York.

WHO (1986). 'Safe Water Supply and Sanitation:Prerequisites for Health for AH', World HealthStatistics Quarterly, Vol 39, No 1, pp 2-31.

World Bank (1986). Financing Adjustment with Growth inSub-Saharan Africa, 1986-1990, World Bank,Washington, DC.



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