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Regional cooperation in the water and sanitation
sector: Latin America and the Caribbean
Miguel Campo Llopis, Anamaria Nunez and Jorge Ducci, Inter-American Development Bank
S
ince its creation in 1959, the Inter-American Development
Bank (IDB or ‘the bank’) has provided financial and techni-
cal support for the improvement of water and sanitation
services in Latin America and the Caribbean. From 2007, with the
creation of the Water and Sanitation Division, IDB has worked
jointly with the countries in the region
1
for the fulfilment of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and beyond; to ensure
universal, quality access to suitable water and sanitation services.
With regard to the water and sanitation sector, the MDGs are to
halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water
2
sources and improved sanitation
3
by 2015, using 1990 as the base
year. The most recent data on the whole region from 2010 show
that the goal of 93 per cent of access to safe drinking water sources
has been overcome, but the goal of ensuring improved sanitation
has not (coverage in the region is 79 per cent and the goal is 84 per
cent). These coverage levels translate into 34 million people without
access to safe drinking water sources and almost 124 million people
without access to improved sanitation.
4
In terms of funding, IDB’s commitment has been trans-
lated into financial support tools such as investment loans
and donations, for a sum of around US$7 billion. These
resources have been allocated to funding activities such as
the expansion and rehabilitation of water supply networks
and sewage; basic rural sanitation and water systems;
wastewater treatment plants; works for flood prevention
and drainage; and construction of sanitary landfills.
In order to be able to respond adequately to the
demands of countries in the context of climate change,
the bank has reinforced its knowledge product range
to emphasize issues related to the political economy
and water resource management, strengthening of the
sectoral institutional framework and incorporation of
new work methodologies, among others. In addition,
the IDB has put its technical and financial capacity at
the service of regional dialogue. It has established stra-
tegic alliances with other multilateral institutions and
bilateral agencies, and increased the impact of the inter-
F
inancing
C
ooperation
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
20
40
60
80
100
Safe drinking water
Improved sanitation
Per cent
The evolution of drinking water and sanitation coverage in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the MDG for 2015
Source: IDB