Toespraak Prins van Oranje ter afsluiting bijeenkomst over drinkwater en sanitaire voorzieningen in Latijns-Amerika, 16 november 2007

Toespraak | 16-11-2007

I would really like to thank the Government of Colombia for hosting our Board. All of us have enjoyed a wonderful time in this country. We had the privilege of President Uribe joining us this morning, demonstrating his firm commitment to water and sanitation issues. And the presence of so many ministers and representatives of other countries of the region shows that water and sanitation issues are high on the agenda.

This dialogue was an invaluable opportunity for our Board to learn about the water and sanitation challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean. We thank everyone for taking the time to inform and educate us about your countries.

We firmly believe that Latin America and the Caribbean will reach the Millennium Development Goal targets for water and sanitation, which they and the rest of the world adopted in 2000. But we already have used up half of our time, and have much left to achieve. It will require resolve and focus for the next seven years remaining until 2015.

We are coming to the end of a fascinating week which started with the Cali LatinoSan conference with the aim of raising the political profile of sanitation and hygiene at country and regional levels in Latin America and the Caribbean through high-level advocacy. We also finished our 9th meeting of the Advisory Board yesterday. I was happy with the progress made in all our working groups which are based on the Hashimoto Action Plan chapters. Today, we were in the unique position to bring those two lines together and with positive results.

Ministers, government delegates and stakeholders discussed how together we can speed up the water and sanitation agenda in the region. We hope that the Chair's Summary we have agreed on today will help kick-start actions by governments and stakeholders.

We started by identifying barriers and bottlenecks. Then, using suggestions from the Hashimoto Action Plan, we discussed what governments can do on their own and together to break through these barriers and bottlenecks.

In the Summary I presented earlier, we agreed that financing, capacity building and governance are the keys to drastically improving the region's water and sanitation services. We have agreed to promote the Inter-American Water and Sanitation Summit by Heads of States, and to take other specific actions.

Because water and sanitation issues across the region are diverse, governments and communities will of course pursue different approaches. But today we found that through regional cooperation we can learn from each other by sharing what we have done and will do to solve our specific problems. We signed a joint statement between the Inter-American Development Bank and UNSGAB which identifies six specific areas of collaboration including Water Operators Partnerships, the IDB's Water and Sanitation Initiative, water disasters, and the promotion of integrated water resources management.

There are many challenges ahead, but also opportunities. Next week we will officially launch the International Year of Sanitation in New York. If governments take advantage of the International Year, and use it effectively, we can do great things to help ease the sanitation crisis. I sincerely hope that will happen, for the sake of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean, most especially the poor. The outcomes of the LatinoSan conference, including the Ministerial Declaration, are very positive steps and such progress increases my confidence that we can actually contribute to improving health, dignity and development in this region.

So now all of us have work to do. In the coming months, let us resolve together to focus our attention on the actions we identified today. I thank all of you for your contributions and support.

And never forget that Sanitation for All also implies All for Sanitation!