New Anti-Corruption Group Aims to Cleanse Water Business

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, August 22, 2006 (ENS) - Corruption is draining the water sector, says the Water Integrity Network, a new organization launched today to fight the dirty business. Five water organizations have joined forces with the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International to form the new organization, announced today at World Water Week in Stockholm.

The Water Integrity Network (WIN) intends to raise awareness and facilitate effective anti-corruption actions on the ground, from influencing national policies to community initiatives involving the private and public sector.

"The World Water Week in Stockholm is an ideal platform to highlight the importance of tackling corruption in all areas of the water sector internationally," said Dr. Donal O'Leary, senior advisor at Transparency International, which hosts the WIN Secretariat.

"The Water Integrity Network hopes to help plug a leak which effectively serves as a barrier to improving the lives of poor people around the world," O'Leary said.

Girl drinks from new water system in her town of Keelakarthigaipatti, India. (Photo courtesy Water Partners Intl.)

Corruption hits the poorest the hardest by forcing them to pay bribes to connect to water pipes or tankers. It inflates the cost of creating and maintaining water infrastructure and diverts irrigated water away from poor villages.

Falsified meter readings by paid-off readers, ill-advised procurement of expensive but poorly constructed facilities and bought directorships are evidences of corruption.

Biased decisions are made on the allocation and location of water supplies, wastewater treatment facilities, service points and pipe systems.

As a result, citizens and especially the poor, suffer from increased water expenses, limited or denied access to services, lost dignity, poor health and eroded democracy and social equity, the new Water Integrity Network said in a statement today.

"The Millennium Development Goal target to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015 cannot be met if corruption is not reduced," said Dr. Hakan Tropp of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), and chair of the WIN Steering Committee.

"We call on leaders and citizens throughout society to stop the leakage of corruption now," said Tropp.

In March, the UN published its second triennial World Water Development Report, a joint undertaking of 24 UN agencies. On corruption, the report states, "In the water sector, as worldwide, corruption is pervasive, though shortage of information about its extent in the water sector prevents a full picture from being obtained. It has had little attention to date in the water sector and much remains to be done."

Nina, seven, fills jerrycans with water in a slum near Manila, the Philippines. She can earn up to US$2 per day helping her brother collect fresh water to sell on the black market. (Photo by Jeremy Horner courtesy UNICEF)

To address these problems, the Water Integrity Network will help to influence national and international policy by providing information and anti-corruption tool kits to governments, companies, regulators and nongovernmental groups.

WIN's core work will include diagnosing problems, proposing solutions, building capacity and monitoring progress. A fund for civil society activities in developing countries is also envisioned to help develop effective local anti-corruption coalitions.

The Water Integrity Network was founded by the International Water and Sanitation Centre, the Stockholm International Water Institute, Swedish Water House, Transparency International, and Water and Sanitation Program-Africa.

The Network welcomes its newest member, AquaFed, the International Federation of Private Water Operators, and remains open to new members from the public and private sector and civil society who want to rid the water sector of corruption. Visit: www.waterintegritynetwork.net

Elsewhere at the World Water Week meeting, three students from China were awarded the US$5,000 Stockholm Junior Water Prize tonight in a formal ceremony in the Stockholm City Conference Centre/Folkets Hus.

Wang Hao, Weng Jie and Xiao Yi from Shanghai Nanyang Model High School won the annual prize for their work to clean up the polluted Caoxi River.

First, they dammed small sections of the river channel and removed exposed contaminated mud. Then, oxygen-starved stretches of the river were revitalized through the use of floating aerators.

Third, bushes and other bank-side plants were fertilized with organic waste, irrigated, and used as biological barriers to block polluted runoff from the land. Finally, through a water quality monitoring program, illicit sewage discharges were discovered, exposed, and eliminated.

The team said, "This tried-and-true method for river channel restoration gives great hope for similar successes with other streams in the 19 million person Shanghai metropolitan area."

Professor Asit Biswas is winner of the 2006 Stockholm Water Prize. (Photo courtesy SIWI)

In his roles as a scientist and educator, he has acted as an advisor and confidant to policymakers in water and environmental management in 17 countries, to six heads of the United Nations agencies and to other intergovernmental and international organizations.

Professor Biswas founded the "International Journal of Water Resources Development" and continued as editor in chief for the past 21 years. He has been involved in the writing of 64 books, including several about to be published - "Water Management in Mega-cities," "Impacts of Large Dams," and "Poverty Alleviation and Water as a Human Right." For more on Professor Biswas' accomplishments, click here.