WIN at the Stockholm World Water Week 2009: Why Corruption needs to be on the agenda!

WIN at the Stockholm World Water Week: Why Corruption needs to be on the agenda!

Under the title “Responding to Global Changes: Accessing Water for the Common Good”, this years World Water Week (16-22 August 2009) gathered more than 2.500 delegates and water sector experts from all over the world in the Swedish capital Stockholm. The conference programme encompassed panels, seminars and events on the issues of transboundary waters, water and sanitation, virtual water and - even more strongly than in recent years - the impact of climate change on the water sector! The annual Stockholm World Water Week is an important forum as it brings together a variety of people working in the sector to discuss ongoing developments and ideas and to share knowledge and information (www.worldwaterweek.org). Since its foundation in 2006, the Water Integrity Network (WIN) has made a continuous and solid effort to participate in the Week with a diverse set of events and discussions - determined to expose the negative impacts of corruption in the sector and with the objective to raise the profile of effective, clear and practical water integrity on the agenda of policy makers, civil society and the privates sector.

Raising Awareness to the Impact of Corruption in Water

The ever increasing demand for clean water for private and industrial use, costly infrastructure projects and large sums of development assistance for water delivery has created a wide spectrum of opportunities for corruption to occur. Financial and organisational abuse of public trust and money is felt severely by those who are already suffering the most from water shortages; the impoverished and disadvantaged communities worldwide. It is WIN’s belief and mission that corruption can only be addressed by bringing it to everyone’s attention through a joint effort that involves the entire sector. WIN promotes pro-poor water integrity practice to reduce corruption by building coalitions at local, regional and global levels. WIN members and partners supported by the WIN secretariat used the Stockholm World Water Week as an opportunity to urge for greater transparency. In this regard, measures such as local control, increased protection of whistle blowers and institutionalisation of accountability procedures are essential for effective water integrity. WIN also pressed international financial institutions and other donor communities to place an increased focus on integrity in development assistance and encouraged these institutions to monitor the water industry – both public and private - more closely. In an attempt to make advocacy for water integrity more palpable, WIN had encouraged its members and partners to visualise the effects of corruption in water by entering the photo competition Water Integrity – Visualised. The winning pictures were exhibited at the WIN booth during the World Water Week. In addition, artist Pascall Venot urged conference participants to paint their perception of corruption in a joint artwork that was created during the conference (Painting the Colours of Corruption).

Improving Integrity by Building Partnerships

The WIN seminar Partnerships for Water and Environmental Sanitation: Integrity, Accountability and Transparency was organized in cooperation with WIN partners Global Water Partnership (GWP), Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), UNDP Water Governance Facility at SIWI (WGF) and International Water Association (IWA). The seminar aimed at highlighting the importance of building partnerships across different water sub-sectors, countries and governance levels to promote integrity. Rather than creating ‘just another network’, WIN strongly advocates for partnerships and coalition building to raise awareness and to initiate, support and foster anti-corruption action on the ground. The seminar showed examples and discussed very practical questions of how to make effective partnerships work (full report). The World Water Week was perceived as an opportunity to develop and strengthen existing partnerships with organisations such as TI, UN-Habitat, IWA, GWP, and WSSCC. This was also expressed in a signing ceremony in which WIN Chair Håkan Tropp and TI-Vice-Chair Akere T Muna formalised the existing cooperation of the two organisations to combat corruption in the water sector. This fruitful partnership has borne important achievements, such as the landmark publication Global Corruption Report 2008 on Water and the Water Integrity Studies in Uganda.

Corruption and Transboundary Waters

WIN considers it a success that Transparency International’s Vice-Chair Akere T Muna participated in the High-level panel on Transboundary Waters Whiskey is for Drinking – Water is for Fighting Over. The representative of the leading anti-corruption movement worldwide joined the panel with other water sector leaders among them Hon. Ramesh Chandra Sen, Minister for Water Resources from Bangladesh and Hon. Khempheng Pholsena, Minister of Water Resources and Environment Administration in Lao PDR.

He pushed the panellists to recognise that transboundary waters and their governance are susceptible to some unique corruption risks. For example, in the process of building the Itaipú Dam, a joint project between Paraguay and Brazil, management operated from parallel accounts not declared by either authority. This led to an estimated $2 billion lost to fraud,. The case demonstrates that there is a legal gray-zone of transnational water schemes, which needs to be addressed. This kind of corruption seriously undermines systems of trust and enforcements, and opens the door to unsustainable water-grabs and pollution. Moreover, it can destabilize political relations, leading to conflict, or disrupt the water management schemes. If the victims of such an action are outside the jurisdiction of the polluter, there is very little precedent for enforcing sanctions.

Outcomes of the World Water Week

The 2009 World Water Week placed a special emphasis on the relationship between water and climate change. It is crucial that the water community uses its knowledge and experience to influence more strongly climate change discussions, in particular the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP-15). WIN manager Teun Bastemeijer therefore drew attention to the fact that climate change will increase the need for regulation and oversight as demands and water stresses become more acute. The World Water Week was closed with the “Stockholm message”, a statement developed by the conference delegates. It states that “Water is a key medium through which climate change impacts will be felt.” and aims to be included in the Copenhagen Agreement, which will replace the Kyoto Agreement. WIN endorses that the “Stockholm Message” also highlights the importance of sharing information (“Higher-quality information that is more effectively shared will strengthen responses.”) which is a first and central step towards achieving accountability and integrity in the water sector.

Further Information:

KENYA: A boy drinks from a small pool that is the sole water source for the Bulla Maki settlement in North-Eastern Province. The settlement, created by Kenyans of Somali origin who have been displaced by the drought, is four months old. Approximately 300 people, including 123 children, have moved to the area to be near food aid.