Expanding wastewater treatment starts from sharply unequal conditions. The 2017 UN World Water Development Report, published March 22 and available by March 24, warned that meeting its wastewater target would place a heavier financial burden on low-income and lower-middle-income countries than on the two higher-income groups. Its concern was the cost of catching up, not a bill already measured for individual families. [S7]
The report estimated that high-income countries treated about 70% of the municipal and industrial wastewater they generated. The corresponding shares were 38% for upper-middle-income countries, 28% for lower-middle-income countries and 8% for low-income countries. These figures concern treatment of any kind, not a common level of treatment quality. They describe income groups rather than the performance of each country. [S7]
The summary linked continuing untreated releases, especially in developing countries, to gaps in infrastructure, technical expertise, institutional capacity and finance. AFP added a criticism of policy priorities in its March 22 coverage: lead author Richard Connor said clean-water supply had received more attention than management after use, although the two belonged together. His remarks identify a concern about priorities, not proof of why any particular country invested too little. [S6][S7]
Together, the capacity estimates and financing warning put a distributional question at the center of expansion: how much additional responsibility can countries with less treatment capacity carry? The report anticipated a relative financial disadvantage for the lower-income groups. The retained summary does not price that burden or allocate it among governments, funders and service users. Deciding who pays therefore requires more than comparing treatment rates. [S7]
Source documents
- 2017 UN World Water Development Report, Wastewater: The Untapped Resourcehttps://reliefweb.int/report/world/2017-un-world-water-development-report-wastewater-untapped-resource
- Wastewater key to solving global water crisis: UNhttps://www.geo.tv/latest/135145-Wastewater-key-to-solving-global-water-crisis-UN