New sanitation and water commitment

Dorcas is one of 26 Civil Society Organisations that have joined forces in writing a position paper with eleven recommendations for Minister Ploumen of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the Netherlands. The recommendations address access, sustainability, governance and financing of clean drinking water and toilets.

At the Global Citizen Earth Day festival in Washington DC, Minister Ploumen announced a commitment to provide sanitary services to 50 million people and clean drinking water to 30 million people. The ministry is currently working on a strategy to bring this commitment into realization. The 26 organisations, united as the Dutch Water Partnership are happy with Ploumen’s commitment. The partnership states that their recommendations are critical to make this commitment a reality.

The first set of recommendations focuses on investments being made where they are most needed: sanitation, and rural areas. On top of that, a sustainable approach of water sources and infrastructure should be central. Good governance is crucial, users need to be involved in decision-making processes and local governments should be empowered to improve their monitoring capacities.

The latter set of recommendations addresses financing. Although the Dutch financial commitment is significant, it is still small compared to what is needed. New strategies and ways of thinking are needed to achieve universal access to clean drinking water and sanitary services.

The 26 NGO’s urge that the government will adopt the 11 recommendations its future activities.

06 October 2015