Water Governance in Europe & CIS

Water Supply and Sanitation

Main challenges in the region

Many countries in the region face sever challenges to deliver safe drinking water and adequate sanitation services to all parts of their population. Tap water is often of dubious quality and delivered at limited times during the day or week only. Large parts of the existing infrastructure built during the Soviet period is falling apart due to a mix of unclear responsibilities between different governmental institutions on one hand, and a severe lack of financial resources for operation and maintenance on the other. There are usually significant disparities between urban and rural areas.

On the demand side, water use efficiency in many countries is poor, often due to inadequate infrastructure but mostly based on the still prevailing attitude of water as a free resource. Unmet demands for transparent and cost-recovering pricing schemes for water and sanitation services and the lack the “user and polluter pays” principle are aggravating the picture.

The UNDP Human Development Report “Beyond Scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis”  has demonstrated the need to make Water a Human Right  – and meaning it: UNDP is promoting equal access to sufficient, safe and affordable water and sanitation services to live a healthy and prosperous life for all men and women of the society, focusing in particular on disadvantaged and marginalized groups.

Based on its new Water Governance Strategy, UNDP is supporting governments in the region to develop national strategies for achieving full access to water and sanitation services for all citizens. Projects and interventions are following the principles of IWRM that combines integration of key stakeholders across the public and private sectors in decision taking processes with necessary policy reforms and legal interventions.

The situation in selected focus countries of the region:

Concentrating on concrete action at local level, UNDP promotes national capacity development and enhanced coordination at national and regional level. In addition to aspects of gender equality and conflict prevention, new challenges are emerging with regard to Adaptation to Climate Change .

It must be recognized that proper water governance and technical innovations have little impact without adequate financing; UNDP is taking the lead in regional and global advocacy to promote and mobilize support from the international community to developing and transition economies.