Minister of the Environment and CSD Chair Børge Brende's opening address at the High level segment of the Commission on Sustainable Development, CSD12, New York, 28.04.04

Our Job now is to Focus on Implementation

Secretary-General, dear colleagues, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,

Secretary General, I thank you for your inspiring words.

You have clearly set the stage for this High Level Segment of the 12 ^th> Session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in the best possible way.

As Ministers, our job now is to focus on implementation. That job started the day we left Johannesburg. For too many years we have had too little action. Today our mandate is clear. We are to act as watchdogs.

This is the first ever Review Session of this Commission. We are gathered to take a hard, honest look at how we are doing. How we are doing on delivering safe water and basic sanitation to the poor. How we are doing on improving living conditions for hundreds of millions of people living in slums.

The tasks facing us in the coming three days are as follows:

- to identify obstacles and constraints;

- to examine the many best practices and lessons learned; and

- to conduct a review that will form a solid, factual platform for decision-making.

Our ambitions can be no less than to become a global springboard for local action. No less, because in the long run, the costs of not acting will by far exceed the costs of acting ; the costs of poverty, only graver than today; the costs of illnesses, only more severe.

The facts speak for themselves:

Take the sanitation crisis. Because that is what it is – a crisis. The social impact of lack of basic sanitation is as shocking as AIDS, and as solvable as polio. For too long has sanitation been the orphan of the water agenda. Simply meeting the sanitation target by 2015 could garner an economic gain in the order of 63 billion USD every year at a price of just 11 billion USD. A six-fold return.

Take water. In the developing world, 90 per cent of the wastewater is discharged untreated, causing adverse impact on ecosystems and livelihoods. It is estimated that deaths caused by waterborne diseases represent a global annual economic loss of more than a staggering 186 billion USD.

Take human settlements. We know that cities are engines of growth. They account for more than half of GDP in most countries. However, rapid urbanization put severe pressure on economies in the developing world. Slums are growing at an alarming rate. In fact, since the CSD 12 started its work two weeks ago, the number of slum dwellers has increased by more than one million.

These are astonishing facts. How are we responding? Are we on track? Are we delivering what we have promised?

Significant progress has already been made in many parts of the world. During the 1990s, 900 million people got access to improved supply of safe drinking water.

Improved sanitation reached an additional one billion people in developing countries. Several countries have made impressive progress in eradicating slums and urban poverty.

Still, this is not enough. We are not on track on curbing the rapid growth of people living in slum settlements. We are not on track on delivering basic sanitation to an additional 2 billion people by 2015. We are not on track on delivering safe drinking water to an additional 1.6 billion people by the same date.

Today, the total annual investments in water and sanitation in developing countries amount to about 15 billion USD. From this, about 5 billion is development assistance. Although the total amount is not enough to meet the targets, there is also a need for existing resources to be used more efficiently at all levels.

Furthermore, we should make sure that those who need it the most will benefit. Today, people living in urban slums have to pay up to 15 times more for safe drinking water than those who are better off. This is unfair, unacceptable and it should be corrected.

Achieving the targets is doable, if we do more, if we do it right and if we do it now.

Secretary-General, colleagues, delegates,

Water, sanitation and human settlements are crucial elements in our daily lives.

Half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from waterborne diseases. Many of these victims live in slums and most are children. Children that could have attended school, gained the means for a way out of poverty and later in life contributed to a much needed economic growth - if only safe water supply and adequate sanitation were provided.

The case for meeting the targets on water, sanitation and human settlements is obvious.

No water - no life, no sanitation - no dignity, no shelter - no security.

Our task is clear. The facts speak for themselves. We have set the targets. Now it is all about implementation. Let’s make it clear that we have embarked on a decade of kept promises.

Thank you