General Assembly

Distr. GENERAL  

21 December 1990

ORIGINAL:
ENGLISH

                                                        A/RES/45/181
                                                        71st plenary meeting
                                                        21 December 1990
 
         International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade
 
      The General Assembly,
 
      Recalling its resolutions 32/158 of 19 December 1977, in which it adopted
 the report of the United Nations Water Conference and approved the Mar del
 Plata Action Plan concerning drinking water supply and sanitation, and other
 agreements reached at the Conference, 35/18 of 10 November 1980, by which it
 proclaimed the period 1981-1990 as the International Drinking Water Supply and
 Sanitation Decade, and 40/171 of 17 December 1985 concerning the mid-term
 review of the Decade,
 
      Bearing in mind that the Second United Nations Conference on the Least
 Developed Countries, held in Paris from 3 to 14 September 1990, the World
 Summit for Children, held at United Nations Headquarters on 29 and
 30 September 1990, and the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000, among
 others, reaffirmed the goals and objectives of providing safe water and
 sanitation for all,
 
      Deeply concerned that, notwithstanding the achievements attained during
 the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, the current
 rate of progress remains slow and would leave a very significant number of
 poor people in urban and rural areas without suitable and sustainable services
 in water and sanitation by the year 2000,
 
      Recognizing that in most developing countries a lowering of the rate of
 population growth will relieve the strains on social services and
 infrastructures, including services relating to drinking water supply and
 sanitation,
 
      Recognizing also that the 1990s will require an intensification of
 national efforts and international co-operation to provide adequate and safe
 drinking water and sanitation, which are crucial for health, for all by the
 end of the century,
 
      1.   Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General
 on the achievements of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation
 Decade; 
 
      2.   Welcomes the New Delhi Statement, adopted at the Global Consultation
 on Safe Water and Sanitation for the 1990s, which was held in New Delhi from
 10 to 14 September 1990, hosted by the Government of India and organized by
 the United Nations Development Programme;
 
      3.   Endorses the four guiding principles, the actions recommended and
 the proposed follow-up, as enunciated in the New Delhi Statement, pertaining
 to the need to protect environment and health, the need for institutional
 reforms, including the full participation of women, the need to promote
 community management and the need to adopt sound financial practices and
 appropriate technologies;
 
      4.   Urges Governments, in their efforts to implement the recommendations
 contained in the report of the Secretary-General and in the New Delhi
 Statement, to stress the following important objectives:
 
      (a)  To assign greater priority to the allocation of development
 financing to water supply and sanitation by seeking a better integration of
 the sector within the overall development planning process and to allocate a
 greater proportion of resources to low-income urban and rural areas, while
 addressing the deteriorating economic, social and environmental conditions in
 those areas;
 
      (b)  To implement programmes aimed at expanding service coverage within
 the framework of integrated water resources and environmental planning and
 management, in the context of sustainable national social and economic plans
 and urban and rural development policies, and to orient them towards services
 that reflect community needs and are used by beneficiaries;
 
      (c)  To ensure appropriate utilization of existing financial resources
 and mobilize additional funds from Governments, donors and non-governmental
 organizations, and to draw on the resources of the local communities;
 
      (d)  To assess and undertake institutional reforms to promote an
 integrated approach, including changes in procedure, attitude and behaviour,
 and the full participation of women at all levels in sector institutions;
 
      (e)  To assess the current status of institutions with a view to
 strengthening national capacities to plan and manage water supply and
 environmental sanitation programmes and to enable them to improve operational
 and financial efficiency;
 
      (f)  To increase their efforts to improve the efficiency and use of
 available financial resources by, inter alia, continuing to expand the use of
 cost-effective appropriate technologies, and to intensify South-South
 co-operation in that regard;
 
      5.   Calls upon the United Nations system and other relevant
 organizations to increase their financial and technical support to the
 national endeavours of developing countries in that regard;
 
      6.   Urges donor Governments, multilateral financial and development
 institutions and non-governmental organizations to give favourable
 consideration to requests for grants and concessional financing arrangements
 to support water supply and sanitation programmes in developing countries;
 
      7.   Emphasizes the importance of intensifying the co-ordination of
 national activities undertaken with the assistance of all relevant agencies in
 the field of water supply and sanitation through, in particular, the
 interagency Steering Committee for Co-operative Action for the International
 Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade and the Water Supply and
 Sanitation Collaborative Council;
 
      8.   Decides to review, at its fiftieth session, the progress made during
 the first half of the 1990s, and requests the Secretary-General to submit a
 report, through the Economic and Social Council, on further progress made in
 attaining the ultimate goal of providing a safe water supply and sanitation
 for all, including proposals for the action needed for the remainder of the
 Decade, with special emphasis on the efforts made at the national level and on
 international co-operation.