Dr. Arvind Kumar*
Rural development is often construed in terms of a procedure of facilitating improvement in the quality of life and economic well-being of the people inhabiting rural areas, which are often relatively isolated and sparsely populated. The exploitation of land-intensive natural resources, such as agriculture and forestry have traditionally been the main livelihoods of the people inhabiting rural areas. Undoubtedly, the rapid pace of urbanization has culminated in bringing 4.46 billion people or 56.61% of the global population to the urban mode of living in 2021, and 3.42 billion people were still living in rural areas globally in 2021. The process of urbanization has been more prominent in Northern America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Oceania.The slow pace of urbanisation in Asia and Africa has made more than half of the total population live in rural areas
Water & Rural Development
The poor segments of the population living in rural areas lack access to basic potable water supply and adequate sanitation facilities, and the resultant outcome is not only in terms of huge human health costs but also spurring gender and other sorts of societal inequalities. The bulk of the rural population, especially in developing countries of Asia and Africa, lacks literacy, and skills and comprises primarily elderly people, women, and children, and lack of resources renders them vulnerable to natural disasters and adverse impacts of climate change.
Making available potable drinking water supply and adequate sanitation facilities are confronted with multiple challenges in the wake of geographic locations of rural settlements mostly in environmentally fragile areas, domination of development models by different cultural values, enfeebled economic conditions, and agro-based economy. Limited water resources and lack of proper infrastructure facilities make the situation in rural areas more complex. The existing water infrastructure in many countries of Africa and Asia entails a decentralized system embracing community water collection points, public stand-post, pit latrines, and septic tanks in certain cases. According to some experts, such infrastructure systems often fall into disrepair owing to technical, financial, and managerial exigencies or limitations. The rural population has to fall back upon local water resources like wells, hand pumps; streams, and rivers that are often fraught with contamination.
The rural people are often deprived of access to adequate, low-cost, and locally-produced technology for water, sanitation, and hygiene requirements; and the advanced urban-focused technologies are often unsuitable for rural areas. Therefore, the technologies meant for rural areas should also take into account other issues, such as energy efficiency and the utilisation of natural treatment systems that are robust and cost-efficient.
Impact of 9th World Water Forum
With more than 40,000 attendees, the 9th World Water Forum was held under the auspices of the World Water Council (WWC) in collaboration with the government of the Republic of Senegal at Dakar, Senegal on 21-26 March 2022, under the theme: Water Security for Peace and Development.It was the first time that an international event of this scalewas organized in sub-Saharan Africa. The location was aptly chosen as Africa faces acute challenges of universal access to water and sanitation while also battling the challenges of poverty and growing pressures related to climate change, rapid population growth, uncontrolled urbanization, pollution, etc.
The occasion wasgraced by the presence of heads of state/government from Japan, Senegal, Ethiopia, Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Gambia, the President of the World Water Council, the President of the World Bank, the Director-General of UNESCO, delegations headed by ministers from many countries, including India, and other participants from the who’s who of water community all over the world.
In the session on ‘Religions and the Right to Water for All’ organized on March 22, 2022, almost all the panellists also reported on the problems confronting the populations, especially rural populations – the privatization of water services in rural areas, the boreholes and other water system installations. For the panellists, while the private sector is necessary to address the challenges of managing and financing water systems, the private sector is not philanthropic and the vulnerable are at the mercy of the operators – if not continue to cry out the same cry of Jesus on the Cross, “I am thirsty”.
On March 24, 2022, the high-level meeting of the segment on basin organizations for water security addressed four essential points, including the Dakar action plan for basins; national basins, and policy integration as a contribution to sustainable development; a presentation of outstanding commitments before ending with the issue of transboundary basins and cooperation between stakeholders as a contribution to peace. The segment led to two large-scale resolutions materialized by the signature of a working protocol between the Organisation de Mise en Valeur du Sénégal (OMVS) and the Agence Française de Development (AFD), as well as the Team Europe initiative in transboundary management, with a funding of 28 million euros to the organizations.
This joint action was initiated by the European Union delegation, in partnership with the African Union, in order to support the basin organizations. According to the Director of Sustainable Development and Blue Economy, Harsen Nyambe: “This will help us to support data collection and we congratulate the EU for this great initiative”. Claudia Hermes of GIZ added that transboundary water management is fundamental for sustainable development and pointed out that the German government is renewing its commitment to water management with a support of one hundred thousand dollars.
Furthermore, the keyword of this meeting remained transboundary cooperation, as the various panellists emphasized the commitments and prospects, particularly with regard to water management and resilience to climate change. Good water management would help create jobs and improve livelihoods. In addition, Ms. Angelica Soto mayor, representative of the World Bank, made a commitment to transboundary and groundwater management. “The limitations to transboundary cooperation are water pollution, climate change, lack of inter-ministerial coordination. To solve this, it is essential to develop a good monitoring mechanism”, she said. Thus, the contribution of the 9th WWF lies in catapulting the role of water to the global agenda by focusing on the role of water in promoting peace and rural development, and the forthcoming UN-Water Summit in 2023 is likely to focus on these issues too.
Way Forward
In order to promote inclusive and equitable rural development, there is a dire need of evolving an integrated development strategy for ensuring sustainable water security and sanitation in rural areas with a specific focus on the identification of adequate awareness-raising programmes for water security and sanitation; identifying appropriate technology for agriculture, water and sanitation services; devising a new business model of infrastructure development and investment specifically for the rural poor; and envisaging new institutional framework capable of addressing the issues of rural areas in an integrated manner.
*Editor, Focus Global Reporter
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