Water for People: Advancing Equitable Access to Water and Sanitation

All right. Thank you so much. Guess um I guess we can wait few minutes cuz I still can see participants are joining us. Let us just wait few minutes and then we can But All right, I guess uh we can start. Okay, so hi everyone. Thank you so much for joining us on the fifth webinar of uh capacity development series towards the UN water conference of 2026. Today we are going to focus on the thematic area water for people adv uh and under the theme we are going to address advancing equitable access to water and sanitation. My name is Randa Bubakar. I'm here representing Iowa International Association. We are hosting the we are the colleague of the session alongside uh me and my colleagues. We're going to host you for this today's webinar. I hope it's going to be enjoyable and informative as well. So today we are we are having few wonderful speakers. Um I guess we can go ahead with few minutes. Sorry for that. I guess. Okay. All right. So, I guess uh we can go directly to Fiona. Oh, sorry. Arin, would you like to introduce yourself? >> No, I don't need to. It's okay. >> All right. Okay. Thank you. So, I guess we I think we can move directly to Fiona and Edian. Uh they Yes. Here are the speakers and the moderates moderator myself. So I guess uh we can go directly to Fiona and Eden. Uh they are going to help us to set up the scene of the uh theatic area and introduce us to the water for people the inter interactive dialogue. Uh Fiona the mic is yours. Go ahead please. >> Great. Thank you very much Randa and you you really put the expectation high by calling us wonderful speakers. So thank you for that. Um we'll try and and and live up to the expectation. And just to say a warm welcome to everyone and thank you for inviting us uh today. Myself um representing WH and my colleague Aiden um Cronin from UNICEF. We're both going to say a few words about um interactive dialogue a um and the 2026 UN water conference and I'm pleased to start off with uh just a few slides. If you want to go to the next slide please. Um by just saying a few words about um IDA Waterford people and basically you who UNICEF have been um in charge of uh developing a concept note that has been prepared really for setting the foundations for discussions that have been happening that are happening that are going to be happening over the next few months leading up to the um conference in December but also beyond. So really about setting the foundations. IDA is co-chared by Switzerland and Ghana and we're pleased today to bring this discussion to you all and to really focus on how we we aim to try and we should collectively aim to try and accelerate progress on the human rights to water and sanitation while ensuring no one is left behind. Next slide please. So what is water for people and what is interactive dialogue a? Um so this this interactive dialogue A really addresses um the human rights to water and sanitation including people in vulnerable situations um and connecting this very strongly of course with healthy societies and economies um around the world. It also highlights um strongly political will action, climate resilient wash systems, targeted financing as well as more efficient service delivery as well as wash and humanitarian context which is extremely important particularly to SDG6. It connects to of course um 6.1 SG 6.1 indicators and targets on drinking water, 6.2 two on sanitation and hygiene and also on the means of implementation six beyond participation but it also goes beyond um because it of course is inter interconnects so there's a lot to unpack in um interactive dialogue a border for people but I think just to share a few key facts that we all know but is a good reminder um next slide please is I think we need to recognize that significant progress has been achieved in the last 10 plus years but the world does remain off track to achieve SDG6. Um I think we all recognize as well then we know from the data whether the J&P and the glass data that inequalities between um and within countries are actually widening meaning that people the furthest behind are increasingly at risk of being left behind. So it's really sort of reaching the last mile which should really in fact be the first mile. Between 2000 uh the year 2000 2024 um the global population rose by 2 billion from 6.2 to 8.2 um but more people gained access to safely managed drinking water. So that's really on a positive note. Um and 2.8 billion to safely managed sanitation. So this is I think just to start off on a on the the positive results is that this is really a significant achievement that the wash sector has stayed ahead of a very significant global population growth. However, if we are to reach SDG6, if we are to reach the last or we call it the first mile um on wood and sanitation, significant progress and acceleration is needed. But I think we need to recognize very significantly that the progress that has been achieved has been uneven and the number of people being left behind has has fallen more slowly. If we can go to the next slide and just to to share some results from the latest glass survey that was published at the end of last year and launched in January actually at the DAR meeting the prep meeting for the UN water conference. Um these are results indicating and showing that most countries recognize the rights to water and sanitation but that implementation remains uneven and that financing, monitoring and accountability mechanisms and measures to address the most vulnerable groups are often not adequately targeting the poorest and those that need it most. And I think the other sort of key points to bring up here is that of course climate change, conflict, and fragility are compounding existing inequalities and increasing the urgency for action. And with that, I'm now going to pass over to my colleague Aiden to take you few through a few more slides. Aiden, over to you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Fiona. and um great to be uh here with with you all today and having a chance to share um on this interactive dialogue which is extremely important for um as Fiona said to reach the the first mile um in particular and this is one of the issues that we'd like to see not just in our interactive dialogue but across all of the other five interactive dialogues also that um really this um you know conference coming up in in just a couple of months now just over two and a half months that we will have the chance to really um see a change in in access. So really achieving the human rights to water and sanitation but also um you know with a very strong focus on the unserved or underserved at the moment and we know who those people are. Um 500 million children going to school without basic drinking water. um um very significant um uh carrying of water loads especially on women. Um huge humanitarian needs on on um and wash and that we know that um these have actually been uh growing in fragile and conflict settings where actually the support funds um to help those have actually helped those people have been inreasing. Um and actually um you know the stats would show very clearly that children in particular way more likely to to die from d diseases linked to unsafe wash than from direct violence in those settings. So there's a lot to do um huge amount of work and um you know tools like the the WHO UNICEF JMP and glass report that um Fiona referred to you know help us to quantify but also to target um who those people are. So if we go to the next slide uh please um thank you. I mean the the ultimately the SDG6 which we've just four years left now I mean by 2030 we were really hoping to see universal access but as Fiona um alluded to earlier we were actually seeing inequities and uh growing inequities actually across um across the globe. So this isn't um um what we wanted. I mean we wanted the conference to really be um showcasing some of the achievements that have been done but also to highlight what needs to be done moving forward which is accelerating uh wash access for all and the um deepening climate crisis and increasing natural disasters are not helping us as as is not conflict and growing public health emergencies such as Ebola chalera um we're seeing a lot of changes in the global context around Bosch, which squeezes on um development aid and um but we also see that um there's many systemic issues that need to be addressed in the sector such as uh fragmentation um coordination uh insufficient budgets um insufficient operation and maintenance within those budgets, weak budget execution. Um we also see um insufficient human resources and capacity to diversify the workforce and and then finally you know this has been compounded by gaps in monitoring and data for decision- making especially on the subnational inequalities um that we are so interested to um to directly target to reach those people. So we'll go to the next slide and um the the whole point of the concept note that is being developed for has been developed for for interactive dialogue uh a water for people has been to really um you know identify what are those solutions. So we know the challenges but we need to get to solutions. Um there's three that we'd like to highlight here in principle in terms of high level political action at all levels. political commitment really um can you know transform into financial commitment can for can inform that action on the ground and we also believe it's important to maintain our strong emphasis on embedding human rights principles into wash systems and then um how do we strengthen resilient systems to continue to deliver sustainability and equity and that's extremely important that the sustainability part of um wash services is is is um highlighted in the conference. Next slide please. Um so we've we've identified um a key issues that will need um you know discussion and we'll need addressing as we move this forward. System strengthening, you know, we need strong sectors mean strong systems to deliver them. If we're going to address um climate issues in the sector, we need systems. We can't have um ad hoc and um um you know peacemeal solutions. It needs to be really um systematic and across national and subnational level. And I mentioned monitoring and financing and also capacity already but also how do we get ministries working across for for better integration. We're very crosscutting sector in water and sanitation. So we need to see other ministries really owning that across schools, healthcare facilities. um local governance etc. um and and I think it's not just um you know of course the public sector we need um private sector and increasingly um community engagement as well because that's where the the resilience to fragility conflict etc will really be built um and and and sustained. So the next slide um is is just to um give a very quick summary of what um you know an extensive consultation process has has come up with. You see A, B and C here which I already mentioned but underneath these um you know we really identified not just political prioritization but coordination also enhancing um planning implementation um and standards and regulation um ensuring uh service continuity um especially in vulnerable situations. um the financing for specific targeting for equity gaps um has been I think part and parcel of the co-chair um um approach also to to this work which has been great to see workforce we had already mentioned and we really need um to underpin this with continuing strong data monitoring systems for accountability and make sure that um decisions are evidence-based and finally that um you know this this decent if we're building capacity that's decentralized to where it needs uh the needs are at at local levels. So maybe with that I'll um I'll pause and um hand it back uh um you know to to Ronda maybe to move to the next uh section. Thank you. >> Thank you so much Fiona. That was truly informative even for myself cuz I I'm not coming from a wash background. That's really that was really interesting. Thank you so much. So I guess um okay I want to highlight that um you are you are welcome to write your questions. We're going to have a panel uh Q&A panel by the end of the webinar. So you are welcome to write your questions in the Q&A box. We're going to try to answer as much as we can from them. So our next speaker is um an expert with uh over 30 years uh 30 years of experience. Uh his work is uh basically working in the intersection between wash system and public health. I'm honored to having you uh uh to having you here with us. U Mr. Robert Bos I guess you can go ahead please. >> Thank you very much Ronda and um greetings to all from Geneva Switzerland. Um I'm not a very wonderful speaker today because I have a slight cold so you have to bear with me but I'm I've been asked and thank you very much for inviting me to this webinar. I've been asked to um talk a little bit about the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. Um on the next slide um we have a little introduction on that. Um, as you probably all know, in 2010, the United Nations General General general assembly recognized the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. Um, and then of course the um UN High Commissioner on the human rights um further strengthened that decision by the General Assembly in 2015. Two things happened. one was that the countries adopted the um um the sustainable development goals um and in that uh package there was a very strong message about leaving no one behind and I must say and that's why the picture is here of um Katarina Albuquerque she was the first reperator special repertoire for the human rights to water and sanitation and she was incredibly instrumental not only in giving the human rights to water and sanitation a super high profile but she also was very much behind the introduction of no one behind in the overall STGS and sadly she passed away almost a year ago um but she leaves behind an incredible legacy of the initial work that was done on the human rights also in 2015 recognition of the fact that the two issues use drinking water and sanitation actually deserve two separate human rights and so we now speak about the one and the other. Um that um marriage between drinking water and sanitation stems from the first UN uh conference on water and on drinking water which was in Mard Plat in 1977 where the two actually were put together um in a way that maybe hasn't been all that good for sanitation over the times. um it was always left as a sort of afterthought or secondary issue and hasn't really helped to promote sanitation in its own right in the way it should have been. Anyway, um the human rights principles were very critical in this whole issue of um of setting up the human um rights to stay drinking water and sanitation. Um and then of course for the specific human rights on water and sanitation criteria were developed uh which as many of you will know are availability uh affordability, accessibility, acceptability um and of course um from the original perspective that I come from um water quality, safety and health um and um the duty bearsers that means the governments who have signed up to this human rights um are expected to respect, protect and fulfill these human rights. So on the next slide I just wanted to remind the audience that um the uh IWA has also contributed a bit of his of to this whole movement. um first of all by producing a manual on the human rights of the human rights to save drinking water and sanitation for practitioners. So that's really for people who are dealing with the service delivery. Um it appeared in 2016 and it's still available on the website for those of you who want to know more about the details that I don't get get into now. Um and the other was a survey that was done by the um by a consultant um working for IWA and the Interamerican Development Bank to look at how to what extent the human rights uh to water and sanitation criteria had been incorporated into regulatory frameworks in Latin America and in the Caribbean. Um so also available still on the website of IWA on the next I want to just uh refer to the enabling environment um and actually it should be Fion now talks about that because that's what the whole glass report um every time it's published with updates is about it's about all the things that enable um progress towards the goals of water and sanitation policy institutional uh arrangements and institutions, legislation, education, training, financial resources, human resources. But I want to focus uh on the next slide uh particularly on legislation um because um you will see on the next slide that the um yeah that the really few aspects to that. Um, of course, most countries or all countries do have a constitution which sets the overall legal framework for a country. But then within that there are the sort of sectoral legal frameworks that are developed within that constitution um covered by different sectors and also at different levels. Um and then at the end there's also the regulatory framework. Now of course you can say well all these things that are in the enabling environment um are very important policies although policies can be very um you know changeable depending on the political climate as we've seen in some countries but um there also is of course the financial resources and the institutions. Many of these other elements of the enabling environment um still very much depend on the legal framework and the legal action that is being taken. Many laws that prescribe certain things for water and sanitation may come with a budget appropriation so that finances are actually secured under that law. um or you know institutional arrangements are set up by legal frameworks to get to to make them um less volatile and more consistent and harmonized. So legal uh frameworks are very important. Now when we look at the next slide um at the issue of of um of constitution um you'll see that in many in not very many countries the human rights to uh water and sanitation have been incorporated. Back here on the slides to the left, you see those countries where both water and sanitation human rights um have been incorporated into the um into the constitution. Um on the slide on the right, you see that of course when you think about separating those two that when it comes to human rights to safe drinking water, there are many more countries that have put it in their constitution. Um and then um the ones that have added sanitation are um a much smaller number. They're the blue ones. Um which again underscores the fact that sanitation um as an issue u not only receives less attention. It may sometimes also become more controversial. We know that the whole issue of recognizing the human right to sanitation, water and sanitation was held up because there were a number of countries including a number of highinccome countries that uh put obstructions to including sanitation into this human rights framework. Um and of course there's the other thing that many of the sanitary facilities and issues um are dealt with uh more at the local government level than at the very high national level. Um so there's also less of a perceived need to include sanitation into um into the national constitutions. Um anyway, constitutions to be changed or to be adapted or to be um added to um that is a process that usually takes a very long time. And when we're looking at the 2030 horizon that we're working against, um it doesn't seem to be an area where there's a lot of issues that can be achieved in that short period of time. Most constitutional changes require 2/3 majority in parliament. um and in the current um polarized world that is often a very difficult thing to achieve. So on the next slide um you will see then that when we go to legislation that is also where fragmentation sets in. So you have the laws governing the deliver of safe drinking waters resorting under a range of ministries that may be infrastructure, health, local government, natural resources for source water. Uh laws governing sanitation services and wastewater management will also resort under different ministries usually environment, health, local government. And then of course there will be legal frameworks at different levels, national, provincial, district or municipal. Um the only common point of all this legislation is often um in the origin it has because the lawmakers uh meet in parliament to develop and agree on these laws and maybe that's where the best occasion occurs to get these laws harmonized and to make sure that people from different sectors continue to talk about the issues. And for those of you who do want to influence this process, that's definitely what I would recommend is the entry point if you want to have um short-term success is to go to try to um influence your parliamentarians um to promote legislation that supports the human rights to water and sanitation. Um then of course to have Senate to have legislation as we say it's written in stone but it still doesn't move. So we need to make move and that's on the next slide. Um we do want to make sure that um laws are then being applied that there is scrutiny that there is oversight monitoring and surveillance to see whether that is being done and that is regulation. regulations really is the engine that set legislation into motion. Um and um for the progressive realization of the human rights to water and sanitation um we of course have to see that these principles and criteria are translated into operational standards and norms um that can be used by regulators as their reference point. Um and that of course there is in uh the country um at whatever level the country decides to have this that there is an independent regulatory body that has been established by the government and whose um independence is also guaranteed by the government. I know that there are various models of regulation including even self-regulation but I would say the gold standard continues to be to have an independent regulatory body. Now in uh 2019 IWA and the Interamerican Development Bank did a little survey in Latin America and the Caribbean to see in that frame in that region um what happened what had happened to the incorporation of these um criteria and principles into the regulatory frameworks. Um and it showed that while um implicitly a number of these issues are covered in regulation obviously um there's a lot of regulation about the safety of drinking water and that is one of the criteria for the human rights um but explicitly including these principles and criteria in a more systematic manner was at that time still limited and gaps that were recognized dealt with issues around uh you know the rights of people in informal settlements, people in rural areas. Many low and lower middle- inome countries don't have the capacity to actually extend their regulatory services to rural areas. Public spaces, migrant communities and homeless people also are usually not covered. So there's a lot of room for improvement in that area. And of course that is uh something where if people want to uh put their efforts into it where a lot of immediate um results can be achieved towards progressive realization of the rights and towards what universal access for both services. So finally uh looking at the um at the upcoming conference um three of the guiding questions actually very relevant to the issue of human rights. Um the first one is the question that is being raised in the in the the guiding questions list. How can states more effectively translate the human rights to water and sanitation into laws? Well, obviously, as I said, if we don't put pressure on our uh parliamentarians, then very little will happen. So, that's maybe the best shortcut to uh to expand that. Um then of course there's the issue of cities and local authorities translating these commitments and I just wanted I thinking back of one obstacle that has become very clear and that is in countries where decentralization of um power is being applied. Um you may have uh your human rights to water and sanitation in the constitution but once uh decentralization take place that doesn't necessarily mean that the actual scrutiny and and application of those uh criteria is uh transferring down to that local government level as well. And so there's often gaps that arise and that needs to be addressed uh with with urgency in countries where that is taking place. And finally, can policy objectives on equity and resilience be linked to the means of implementation? It's a very good question to which I don't really have an answer except to make sure that whenever legislation is being developed and adopted that budget appropriation is part of that so that um it does it becomes not just a toothless type of law but that we really have the means to uh apply the law and make sure that the human rights to water and sanitation are being implemented. So I think that was what I wanted to say today and um I hand back over to Randa. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. That was truly informative. So I guess uh we can continue our discussion. Uh next we are going to give the mic to Hadi from Sineagal who's going to take us through their experience in as a young water professional in the wash sector and policy forming. Go ahead Hadi please. >> Thank you very much Randa. I just want to um mention that I'm actually from Mali. So um quite close neighbors and I'm also very um much in contact with our colleagues in Sineagal for the organization of the conference. So thank you. Um I want to start with a simple question. I think you can try to answer in the chat or at least keep a word in mind uh about what makes a water service last. Uh you can think about it but it can be somewhere in the magnitude of finance, maybe operation and maintenance, trust, governance. Uh these words can come up um in your m in your mind about um uh the service. But over the past months, I've had the opportunity to engage with this process from a few different angles through the water uh for people consultation in Stockholm which happened um a few days ago through Afro's work uh which is a company that I co-ounded which is based in Mali working with communities in Mali and through previous webinars part of this series that we organized last week on the investments for water um dialogue and across all these spaces I keep coming back um to one particular question which is how can water infrastructure turn into um water systems that actually work for the people and over time uh next slide Please. So I I mentioned that I took part in a consultation on this particular interactive dialogue in Stool and um I actually brought my notebook because sometimes we write thing down in the moment uh because they ring a bell in our brain, right? So from that dialogue I wrote political commitment um as people organizing the workshop were mentioning the flagship initiatives that are taking place uh for the interactive dialogue uh human rights in wash systems amongst others um wash in conflict settings coming from Mali um and financing and when I look back um at those during uh the preparation for this webinar. What struck me was that access is really just the beginning of the story, right? So it becomes meaningful only when the service is safe in some of our cases. Uh community for example can appear on a map as serve can tip uh the box uh for during data collection while people are still spending hours finding water uh when the system breaks down. uh you know a facility an infrastructure can exist while the service around it remains fragile. I specifically mentioned for example during these exchanges that uh you have infrastructures in place but um in some of the remote areas in Mali some people that are entitled to take care of this infrastructure run away because there are attacks um by gi uh groups. So for me the water for people conversation is also about continuity and accountability. Another idea that I wrote down is that uh we have to start a new water balance sheet. Um first there's a hydraological research but then also the community knowledge that goes with that. So because our technical data can tell us what is happening to the resource and communities can tell you what that really means underground right. So we can go to the next slide. So there was also a discussion on um Stockholm around innovation and I remember uh very vividly challenging the idea that AI can be mentioned in this type of conversation as a center of a flagship initiative. And I raised it because I think that the real opportunity is to start um not with the solution but actually with the problem. uh AI can be extremely useful. It can be used for forecasting, managing assets, making things more efficient, uh technologydriven. It can strengthen also the monitoring and providing more data. But is it really solving the problem? Um for me, innovation becomes powerful when it responds to the reality of the service. And interestingly, we reached a very similar conclusion during our previous webinar um last week on investments for water. And one of the strong the strongest messages uh from that conversation was that financing challenges um goes far beyond the amount of capital that is available. It's really how do you use the resources that are available. sometimes you don't need extra money uh to make things work. And Nick Tandi who was uh among our panelists uh the global head of water at SNV made a good point that really stayed with me. He said that before searching for new resources um we should also look at how effectively existing resources are being used and I think that it is very re relevant for us young water professionals like during the webinar we spoke about youth readiness uh we talk about piloting and going at scale and young people need the strong skills of course young entrepreneurs professionals also need access to finance partnerships uh institutions. So perhaps the most innovative things uh we can do is simply make the system work better and connecting the right people with um with each other. Next slide please. So uh this brings me to the third point which is probably the most personal uh for me participation uh means also agency. So through our our organization Afro we have a flagship initiative called GMAN and we've been working with communities along the Nija River Basin around water quality and citizen science. The approach is quite simple. Communities already are the observers um of the everyday also the everyday users of our resources. They see uh the the colors the troubles also happening over time uh due to climate change um and they notice those changes. So citizen science gives us a way to connect those observations with um actual measurements, research and connecting everything together uh through research and scientific cooperation. And for me that is where participation becomes really interesting because the communities contribute to the knowledge. It makes them more um interested to collaborate because you value their knowledge and then together you produce evidence that can be used by decision maker and then later on they would not have any problem with mobilization because community is still um as part of the process. But something that is very very very important that we learned uh through this project was that we actually go back. So during one of our dissemination sessions, community members told us that many projects had come uh to their area and collected information. But what made this experience different for them was that we came back and showed them the results. And that really stayed with me as well. uh because information to travel in both directions, right? Sometimes we make scientific um uh research but we are the only ones that profit from the data, right? Because we don't actually go back and they have no idea what is being discussed with their information. So, um, and then ideally, yeah, they they need to see that feedback and they need to have that feedback loop to feel like they're part of the process. Next slide. Oh, yeah. So, before I close, when I think about Afro's journey and participation in the UN water conference in Abu Dhabi, I see several things coming together. So we are contributing uh as an organization to the overall youth participation process. We're carrying lessons from the field. We're carrying lessons from this capacity building series and other sessions as well. Uh coming up we're bringing communities perspective through our work in Mali and Nishair. We were also trying to push for a side event where we would uh showcase our documentary to Abu Dhabi through activities um with the World Water Film Festival. I find that particularly meaningful because a documentary allows the people uh we speak about in these policy spaces to speak for themselves. Um yeah and and share their ideas without actually physically taking the plane and being there. Um and it allows for for us not to talk on their behalf while while they're not there. So for me the journey uh beyond going to Abu Dhabi has another important step and if we carry those people's knowledge and experience in the UN water conference um I feel personally quite uh accountable to take also what we learn to them after the conference and where do we go from there and I think everyone's focus should be that yes um there's a big preparation process going on through um the the the to the UN water conference in Abu Dhabi. But what are we really talking about after all the hype let's say is over. So for me um in a nutshell, water for people also represents systems um that listen uh to feedback, systems that respond to the community's need and services that continue to work for people even the if the external force is no longer there. Um so I think that us young water professionals can really play a practical role in building those connections and thank you very much. That will be my um contribution. Thank you so much HD and so sorry for for the misconception with Mali and um Sineagal. So thank you so much for your contribution. I guess we can also hear from Marina and Pens was available. I'm available. I can go. >> Yes, go ahead. Yes, please. >> Hey everyone, uh my name is Wema and I was invited to talk about partnerships and locally led approaches for equitable and sustainable wash services. Next slide, please. I'll keep this short and sweet. So there are three kind of things that we need to consider when we're going to implement anything or any kind of water project in any place within communities uh worldwide. We first have to look at the local grounding that's the local context we have in different places uh the partnerships that are available and then how can we make the local community be accountable for the systems that are being put in place. So we have the local grounding which is almost designed for communities around the context. For example, we do know that water picks up minerals as it moves along the soil and the rock. So you can find one place has calcium, another place has sodium and the whole 9 yards. Um so in order for us to know the best design or the best solution to implement in a certain community, we need to collect this data and information from the local authorities whether it's the district government or any other um political or policy that has um that within the country specific country that we're talking about. And then we can go on real partnerships. Uh next slide please if you don't mind. with real uh with partnerships we do know that only 25% of uh money or funds uh is being directed by the government which is not enough to provide this safe water access in every single community that we want to work in. So the whole idea is to mobilize funds and different kind of partnerships whether it's through businesses whether it's through NOS's or even the local people themselves to raise the remaining gap which is a 75% and with that we're able to reach the last of the last mile people because we know that in most global in in global south especially in rural Africa we do have um utilities in place but they're mostly focused in the urban centers. So if we are to go in the last mile provision of anything, we need to outsource of uh 75% of that and it's not an easy job obviously but uh the what we're doing today what we we've been doing in the last couple of years to try and um sensitize people and raise awareness about the uh inconsistencies and the water challenges that are being faced worldwide. It's creating this traction that many people are now being made aware of and we are now getting the traction that we need to um bridge that gap. Again, as one of uh the speakers did mention earlier on is that there are a lot of people who don't have access to safe water and the population rises even as times goes by. So even if we are trying to bridge that gap in the future the gap will still be present and that's why we are emphasizing the importance of partnerships in the regions that we are currently um wanting to do any kind of water project. Next slide please. And then in this slide, we're just going to talk about how the local people can contribute towards their solution and also how partners and different players within the industry can come in together and work together so that we can develop a good solution for a specific community as you provide safe water access. So the first one would be waterpoint inventory. You can just find out about what are the sources that people use um in these communities. Are they using swamps? Are they using the rivers? are they using a hand pump? So getting to know what kind of what inventory that is available in that specific context is going to be very useful for the second uh kind of idea or approach to use which is the baseline survey. You you send out uh your team members or um whoever you're working with to conduct a survey and this is going to be just talking to about anybody who lives in that community to know kind of uh what problems that they've had. um using that water whether they get sick whether they um uh lose a lot of time because we know many people lose a lot of time whether it's productivity or whatn not just to haul water from one place to another. So that's the process of the baseline survey and then you conduct a physibility studies in in regards to okay if we bring this solution to this community how do you think they're going to be uh benefited in the how how do you think they're going to benefit in the long run? So that kind of process that kind of thought process that is being um made within this locally led appro approach is very useful. Um and then the next um approach would be community selection and engagement. Uh remember I did talk about getting the information and the data from the local government just to so that you can know what kind of um hardships there are in certain communities. So from that list that they give you, you would um go down further and re-engage specific communities and maybe choose which ones would be the best um to start with because even as you go into these last mile communities cuz that's our current focus right now as we look at water for people is you want the best solution to to be provided also to the last mile people but at um a sustainable approach. So getting to know what communities um uh data is available. So how many people are in that community? Um how many sources again how many sources of water are available? How can we engage the community? How can we sensitize the community? Because some of the community members are kind of used to um their traditional ways of um you know getting water. So how can you make them see the importance of safe water as opposed to what they've been using before? And then the next step would be community and district assembly. This is the whole process of signing memorandum of understanding and um service delivery agreements between the organization that wants to practice this and uh the district assembly. And then a step further would be between the organization and the community members themselves because you want them to have some sort of dignity and um you also want them to hold you accountable for the solution you're bringing into their community so that if it doesn't work out they can question you and say hey I thought you said it's going to help us improve in our health uh improve in our productivity because time back to do other things that we were not able to do and also maybe have an extra source of income. So if these needs are not met and you went in and uh with a promise to deliver water and that's that's going to unlock so many opportunities for them but that that didn't happen the SDA can hold you accountable as a um wash practitioner in that community and then we go in we do the whole bhole assessment I know many of you are familiar with it. So it's if if there's an existing B hole, you do an assessment on it or if there's not, you do the whole geohysical survey to identify a good place where you can drill a well and you know uh develop it develop it to the point where you want to uh use it to uh meet the community needs and then we do the construction, the rehabilitation and the maintenance of the same um in the long run. And then if we do understand like there are different models so this model is specifically for the organization that I work with um but uh majority of the organization nowadays they're moving from the traditional NGO kind of um approach to a more market based approach where it's more sustainable and you have to find that any person who wants to have safe water at their homes or at their places of work or what whatever place that in um before they were um marginalized, they need to have some sort of skin in the game. And that's why the whole um thing of asking or requesting community members or individuals to pay for their service delivery or to pay for water is very important. It we're not we're not saying for them to pay a lot of money. It's just for them to have the idea of okay, this is my tap or this is my uh you know property. So in that kind of symbiosis relationship, it makes them value what they've been provided for all the more because you find that these same people also do have other priorities in their in their um communities. For example, they you would find them buying pop or soda or um just cigarettes. So if they have money for this little things that they would have even if it's 2 cents which is well 2 cents in dollars um to pay for a small amount of uh of water maybe if it's monthly or if it's um uh prepaid whichever option that is suitable for your organization uh that's the whole process for that and then the last process would be implementation of water systems whether it's hand pumps whether it's p piped systems whichever ever that you find most suitable for that community that you've already done a feasibility study for that would otherwise make it um uh the best solution for it. So um in in short uh it's very important for us all who are trying to get uh water for every single person to realize the importance of partnerships whether it's through government which provides 25% of what is needed. Uh what what's your part to play as a 75% person who needs to have also a skin in the game. uh what part the community members have to play play if they want to uh receive um a solution that's best suited for them and also the importance of just engaging the local government um in terms of how can we best uh provide the best solution sorry for that particular community. So that's all I have um over to you Randa. >> Thank you so much. Those were very practical steps and information. Thank you so much. Uh I guess we're going to move our next speaker, Marina. Marina, I would like to ask you to be concise as much as you can. We are limited on time. Please go ahead. >> Thank you Rhonda. So um my name is Marina. I'm a professor from a university in Brazil. So today I will bring a little bit of perspective regarding some academia and also some water management perspective regarding wash and resilience to climate change. So next slide please. So when we talk about climate, climate resilience in WASH, we often focus on water scarcity, increasing droughts, declining water availability and the challenge of securing water supplies. But today I would like to start from a different perspective. Not too little water but too much water. I would like to look at floods and how these extreme rainfall events can quickly turn into wash and public health crisis. Uh and these drawing on two recent experiences that we have from Brazil. So in February of 2023, an intense rainfall event um made floods and landslides in San Sebastian, one of the coast cities of uh S. Paulo and some of the most severely affected areas were low-income communities where access to water and sanitation infrastructure was limited. Uh this disaster disrupted the water services and exposed residents to contaminated water and seawage. And in the days following the event, the municipality reported a 30% increase in visits to health facilities related to gastroenterteritis. Uh so the context of contaminated water direct contact with flood uh flood waters raised a clear concern about water related health risks. One year later uh we saw the issue at a much larger scale in H Granchu. So during the 2024 floods, more than 1 million customers were without access to drinking water at the peak of the crisis. So this was across 64 municipalities and at least eight cities experienced complete interruption of their drinking water supply. So these experiences illustrate an important point. When we talk about climate resilient wash, we need to look beyond the infrastructure and operation of the watch services themselves. We need to consider the entire water sheet and the risk across the territory so that we can prevent or mitigate the impacts of extreme events before they become disasters. Uh this mean moving from a paradigm focus on disaster management toward the disaster risk management. So shifting from responding to disaster after they occur to actually anticipating and reducing risks before they materialize. So next slide. Um a second experience that I think it's relevant for us to discuss as well is the prominenc program that was implemented by copaza a water utility from ice which is one of these examples of how a territory approach can be used to deal with the climate resilience but in this case regarding drought risk management uh and it was implemented with a preventing perspective. So the interesting aspect here is that the utility does not look at resilience only from inside the treatment plant or the distribution network. So the program here works upstream protecting and restoring the waterershed uh that actually maintain the water cycle and sustain water supply. And one important point of this uh approach of the prominosi ice project is that it was done through partnerships with the local community with the municipalities, the schools, farmers and other institutions. And this is important because these are the people who actually live in the territory and that are able to do the daily actions that are needed to maintain the system restoration. uh and without them it would be impossible for the water utility to actually implement these practices of watershed um restoration because the usually the water sheds they are really big. So if you want to restore specific places that are more uh related to water recharging and etc. Uh we need uh really diffuse action in the in the watershed and not specifically pointed ones. So we need to have the people who lives there actually acting on that. So since 2017 the program has worked in 347 watersheds and has reached approximately 9.7 million people. And for me this illustrated this important shift from the infrastructural resilience to actually a territorial resilience. So the resilience of a wash services starts actually before water reaches the treatment plant. So in the next slide um the Brazilian experience yes this one the Brazilian experience also points to a broader challenge. So climate risks they are not respecting institutional boundaries a flood or a drought is simultaneously a water sanitation health housing and emergency management issue and the impacts they are not equally distributed. So the same extreme event, a flood or a drought for example, can affect communities very differently depending on where people live, the quality of the sanitation infrastructure, their exposure to contaminated water, and their capacity to recover. So in my view, the next step is to move from resilience wash services to toward resilient and equitable territories. This mean anticipating risks, connecting traditionally separated sectors, prioritizing communities that face greater exposure or vulnerability and also co-producing solutions with local actors as the uh Hadi and um patients have uh greatly showed to us. Uh and also something really interesting is that this integrated perspective is also beginning to appear in the Brazilian regulatory framework. So our national water and sanitation uh regulatory agency have now explicitly requires wash expansion to consider hydraological and and geotechnical risks areas and to be compatible with territorial uh and urban drainage planning and to finalize uh resilient wash is not only about keeping the system running is about keeping people safe healthy and served especially those one who are most exposed when climate extreme occur. I hope I was uh brief enough. So I pass uh the board back to you. Thank you. Thank you so much Marina. That was brief indeed. Uh so I guess um we are going move directly to our panel. Arena would like to put there. Yes. Okay. So kindly ask uh kindly. All right. Sorry. Okay. So I would kindly to ask you to open your camera and we are going. Yes. Thank you so much. All right. We have few questions from our participants. Um I guess we're going to start with Marina because uh there is a question that uh regarding your presentation. So some of part one of participants asking if you could elaborate on the fluids turning into wash the one that you show showed us in your first slides. Do you mean emergency wash because wash is abroad and doesn't only >> No. So uh thank you Gazi for your question. Uh so yeah so when we talk about watch we are talking about water access sanitation uh and hygiene. So when I when we discuss the problems related to flood and uh the disruption of wash systems we are talking actually about a nexus that we call the flood water and health public health nexus. So the floods the flood itself is already a disaster that we have to deal with but uh usually they are triggering events for other disasters that are consecutive to that. So for example during a flood system we can have the pumping stations flooded. We can have the the the water treatment plants flooded. we can have the the over seage of the sewer system etc. And so the people would be in two points like one in contact with with contaminated water for example treatment plans water treat sorry seage treatment plants uh when the river overflows the people will be in contact with contaminated water and this affects the health of the population because they they will be in contact with the contaminated water. So this is a problem that we have to face directly and uh to prevent this we have actually to have preventing actions. So the first thing at all like we have to have sanitation systems and try to remove the seawage overflow from the the river. But the second point also is that the infrastructure itself can be like for example the seawage treatment plant itself can be in a place that it can be flooded. So even if we have the treatment plant like the place will be flooded and the people would be in contact with the contaminated water as well. So this is a trigger the uh the flood will be triggering a different problem regarding the operation of the system but also this can be uh a problem in terms of water access. So we can have these pumping stations that could be flooded and the so the people won't have access to the water arriving in their houses because the pumping system itself doesn't allow uh it it will be disrupted. So this doesn't allow for the water to arrive in the houses of the people. So we lack water access not because we don't have the infrastructure itself but because the infra infrastructure was actually affected by the flood that happened in that place. And this also will lead to people actually drinking a water that is not safe during these events and it will increase the the disaster because the now we will have also health problems uh regarding to that. So it's actually a an exos important for us to evaluate and in these cases of like extreme floods uh thinking about more resilient infrastructures of wash systems will not always work because they are like huge floods. For example in the hill granjudu state we have the twoirds of the state completely flooded. So it was completely underwater. So only focusing on trying to have resilient infrastructures would not work. We have to think about how we can prevent the flood areas itself. So it's uh that's why I was mentioning that is necessary a territory approach and a um a urban planning a watershed planning more more than just thinking about resilient infrastructures. Of course resilient infrastructures are important as well. I just wanted to bring a different perspective from a watershed management uh that we have to think as well. I I I hope that this could have answered your question but I'm I'm here if you want to discuss a little bit more. Thank you so much Marina. I think um I think I'm going to direct the next question to you also. Uh Aiz is asking about drilling bhole uh bhole wheels. Uh wells are expensive and constructive. Uh so the pro provisition of drinking water usually depending on the ground uh groundwater reserve. How safe is how safe or contaminated is water for local communities in the research area? And do you agree with this statement? The safer uh groundwater for drinking is the debur bear holes. >> Ronda, sorry I have a little bit uh problem on understanding the question. Can you write it for me? >> All right, I'm just going to Okay, >> if you want during this meantime give to another question to another person. Is that okay? >> Just a minute. Okay, there you go. So, as this is basically asking about the drilling bar holes, wells. Ah, okay. So yeah, I think uh other people can join on this one as well. But like the regarding groundwater reserves um that actually is um kind of tricky because usually groundwater is a safe water because you have all of the soil doing the treatment and etc. But that will depend actually of uh other watershed managements that we can have and other sources of contamination that we can have. So usually they are safe water but you can have contaminations that goes uh especially when we are talking about some specific types of groundwater that are more porous. I I'm sorry that my English is not so good so maybe I will have some trouble explaining this but like some places maybe you can have like fractal groundwater something like this and uh it's more uh possible to have contamination on that. This is actually an important point because uh it's this is a problem for us here in Brazil because we have regulations regarding the water quality of groundwater as well that have to be uh assessed uh but they are really um not strong you know like we don't know actually how to measure water quality in groundwater what would be considered safe parameters or not and this is a point that we have a regulation that says it has to be safe values but they don't tell us what are actually the safe values because this will depend from groundwater to groundwater to region uh from region um and we have to explore more. I think groundwater is um is a it's a major field of research that we still have to explore more uh including how to establish these safe parameters. So I I'm just telling about the Brazilian experience that we have that the regulatory uh frameworks that we have they don't they they are not strong enough regarding groundwater yet. >> All right. Thank you so much. Okay. Our next question >> Fiona I think Fiona would like to say something as well. >> All right. Go ahead Fiona please. >> But Fiona your mic is really um low. >> Yes. Still we can't hear you. >> No, no, no. It's a bit better, but it still is unhearable. We we can't still we can't hear you, Fiona. >> Here we go. Can you can you hear me now? >> Yeah. No, it's much better. Yes. Go ahead, please. >> Okay. Just very briefly on the on the groundwater and maybe Aiden from UNICEF might want to come in on this as well, but I think that the recommendation would be, you know, of course to establish a professional construction, multi-hazard water safety planning and really about sort of strategic sighting um and location uh for secure groundwater access. I think that there's a significant percentage of communal bore holes that fail prematurely or deliver actually unsafe water due to poor sighting and substandard drilling practices and a lack of baseline chemical testing. And as Marina was mentioning and just to come back maybe to refer back to the WHO guidelines for drinking water quality. Um these emphasize that deep groundwater frequently presents um present elevated risks of naturally occurring geogenic so geological contaminants like arsenic or fluoride that then pose long-term um health um outcomes um and chronic diseases. So I think these chemicals threats um cannot actually be filtered out by by geological depth by drilling deeper um alone and really require strict um lab validation before a well is approved for public use. So I just wanted to to add that I I'm not sure if anybody else wants to come in on this point but those are the recommendations um with regard to uh drilling from the uh who guidelines for drinking water quality. Thank you. Thank you so much, Fiona. Our next question, I think I'm going to direct this question for Robert. Uh, how does enforcing human rights water uh enforcing in constitutions in national constitutions going to help overlooked groups who are often lack legal structure or capacity to assert this right? >> Yes, that's a very good question. Um and of course the the the the issue of bringing things into the constitution sounds like a very abstract and far removed from community level type of thing but it is a first precondition to make sure that within a country you know further legislation and regulation can be developed. Um as I said um the the duty bearer the governments that have subscribed to the human rights to water and sanitation um have the duty to uh protect respect and fulfill and fulfilling means that they should be seen to um add additional uh resources to towards the progressive realization of the human rights to water and sanitation. Now having that in your constitution is a first starting point to create a broader framework of laws and regulations that will do that. At at the other side of the spectrum there is of course the issue of of you know how does this work out at the country at the um ground level at the grassroots level um when we look at regulators and as I said in many countries regulators cannot even extend into the rural areas for example because they lack the resources and the and the um human resources also to do that but that is still something that needs to be pursued. Um regulation is not only about um looking at the existing um standards and and um and and then seeing that they're scrutinized and that they're complied with. Um but it is also actively looking for uh gaps in the whole system. Uh where are you missing out communities that need to be addressed? um certainly in relation to the human rights to water and sanitation and leaving no one behind. Um so I think in any regulatory framework and in any regulatory institution um there should be a component in their program that is actively tracing and seeing whether there are gaps um that don't comply with the overall um you know commitment that is being made by putting these um these criteria and principles into the constitution. So it's it's a complex thing but and of course at the bottom line there's also the issue that communities themselves um that do have access um can bring this to the attention of their parliamentarians and they can also fromve who are the ones that are missing out in their communities. It's not only community groups, but it's also individuals within communities, you know, um the elderly or people who are handicapped or people that um you know are discriminated against. Um all these people need to be addressed by the human rights to water and sanitation. But um communities themselves can al members themselves can also bring this to the attention of the um higher political levels. Thank you so much. Uh also building on your uh talk u I would like to also elaborate on the question more. Are there uh I remembered you mentioned we need an independent uh body to regulate a reg an independent body. Are there any effort ongoing effort or movement to establish an independent regulatory body that going that help to enforce uh water uh human rights to water as in national constitutions? >> You know in many countries there are independent regulators and actually um both WH and IWA have uh regular gatherings of regulators to look at all these issues. the the WHO has the regulators network and IWA has the the international regulators forum which will meet again in uh in a couple of weeks in Glasgow during the congress. Um yes these these uh regulators are very much you know tuned in to what the needs are with respect to the um to the uh human rights water and sanitation. But there are no regulators that are specifically designed and to work on only human rights issue. I mean it's an thing that is integrated into the whole system. And of course many of the um criteria that are being monitored um are based on the human rights criteria. They're also translated into the monitoring that is being done at the international level for the SGS. When you look at the criteria for the joint monitoring program for what is safely managed drinking water uh and safely managed sanitation that uh that sort of feeds back directly into the um criteria that have been established for the human rights to water. So it's quite a coherent system um where regulators can pick up the issues that need to be addressed in their specific setting. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mr. Robert. Uh I think our next question uh question is going to be direct to Eden. Edian. Um so based on your best >> sorry can I just complement something Robert just said sorry just on based on the the question about independent regulatory bodies just to to share with um with our audience today that the um glass report that um collected information from 105 countries that was recently published um actually collects information on um regulation on institutional setup. Um we ask whe the countries have independent or governmental regulatory bodies um authorities that exist. Um whether it's for urban rural sued on site there's questions about enforcement and compliance transparency. Um so just I'll put in the chat the link to the data portal where some of these indicators are available um for those that are interested. Thank you. >> Thank you so much Fiona. So our next uh question is going to be directed to Eden. Is Edian around? Yes. All right. So So based on based based on your based on your work uh based on your work, what practical measures have proven most uh have proven most effective in translating abstract concept of human right to water into tangible everyday improvement to local communities. >> Yeah. Thanks. Thanks so much, Ryan. That's a great question. I think um Robert touched on it earlier, but I think um this is about um monitoring evidence um platforms for um sharing. Um it's about accountability mechanisms. But I think um where we've seen um you know practical um challenges getting um to two sustaining the human right to water and sanitation getting addressed quickly. It's about having um sustainability measures in place. So sustainability means um having capacity to fix technical issues but it also means having um um you know clear ways to address financial shortfalls. So how um you know how is that done? It can be done in a very large number of of different ways. Um but it's also about um you know local supply markets having access to parts for um you know maintaining water and sanitation system. So the whole sustainability um um you know discussion and I think also had touched on it very nicely and as well as other colleagues in their presentations um you know it's a huge issue um for the the the people that we're interested in who aren't getting access or sustaining access to water and sanitation. Um so I you know just to you know sum up basically I think um monitoring data evidence but practical ways um that communities come together and sustain their water systems those would be the maybe key elements of the answer. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. I guess um we are almost running out of time. So this question is for all of the panelists. uh I'm kindly asking you to limit your uh answer to 30 at 30 30 seconds. So as we look towards to 2026 UN water conference is there any one key recommendation or pri priority regarding water for people that you hope global leaders will adapt and invest and what it would be >> I would go for political commitment Randa that it's real political commitment and that goes down to um local levels. Thanks. >> Thank you. so much. Um, Hadi, can you go next? >> Yes. Can you hear me? >> Yes, we hear you. Please go ahead. >> Yes. Um, for me, uh, as I said in my presentation, I think we need to humanize more instead of talking about um, AI. That would be my key message. >> Thank you so much, Fiona. Go ahead, please. Uh, for me it's keeping the water wash high on the agenda and leaving no one behind. >> Thank you so much, Fiona. Uh, Robert, go ahead, please. >> Um, well, it's very hard to follow up what Fiona said. I would say the same. Leaving no one behind is critical and we still haven't done too much on it. I think we could do and I hope that in the post 2030 that will be one of the main headlines of the next goals we're setting ourselves. >> True indeed. Thank you so much. Um I think we go to Marina. Go ahead please Marina. >> So I would say collaboration across different sectors and partners and u yeah I think that's it. trying to add something else because everyone already said so many good things. >> All right. Thank you so much, Marina. Go ahead. Uh patience. >> I feel like everybody has said everything. Yeah, I'm just going to echo what Fiona, Robert, Marina, everybody has said. Uh leaving no one behind and also the importance of partnerships because we know that can go a really long way. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. So by this said I guess we we reached to the end of our webinar today. Uh thank you so much for joining us and yes thank you so much for joining us. I hope it was informative and enjoyable. I I indeed uh like enjoyed my time myself. Thank you so much for our wonderful speakers and for the participants as we are continue the series uh the webinar series. Uh the next one is going to be on October. Um you can you can just check our website to for the registration. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day or evening as you are. Thank you so much. >> Thank you for good moderating. >> Thank you so much. >> Greetings to all.