When it comes to investing in water and sanitation infrastructure The first thing that comes to mind is the high costs involved, even more so when there are financial restrictions. The counterpart is the benefits that these investments produce, promoting the economic development of the countries. For example, the gain in health that allows access to adequate water and sewage services.
So important are the effects that the conditions of the water and sanitation have on human and economic development that, in 2015, the General Assembly of the United Nations included access to clean water and adequate sanitation as one of the Sustainable Development Goals for the entire populationwith particular attention to the needs of women and girls and those in situations of vulnerability.
According to the WHO, the goal has been reached for a global level for water, but it has not yet been achieved in sewers.
Juan Carlos Bertoni: “In Argentina, 88% of the population has access to drinking water”
What is the situation in Argentina? Although the data from the last 2022 Census is not yet available, it is possible to make an approximation based on the last UNICEF MICS survey 2019/2020 for our country.
65% of Argentine families have access to water
From these data it emerges that, at the national level, 98% of the surveyed population has access to improved water, while this percentage is 73% in the case of sanitation. Within these percentages, close to 85% of the population has access to mains water and the 65% to sewersthe rest have some type of improved access to services that do not include the public network.
NASA’s Perseverance rover discovered a rushing riverbed on Mars
Now that we know the level, the next question is how coverage is distributed within the country. In the case of improved water, the percentage of the population covered is quite similar between the regions, varying between 98% for AMBA and 99% for Patagonia.
In the case of improved sanitation, the regional dispersion is greater: while the 61% of the population of Northeast Argentina has access to improved sanitationthis percentage is 95% for Patagonia.
An interesting fact that emerges from the analysis is that there is a negative relationship between inequality and coverage. That is, those regions with the highest percentage of population covered are also those that have percentages that are more similar to the interior of the territory, although the equality is greater in the case of water than in the case of sewers.
Water: the most abundant good on the planet and at the same time the scarcest
The data also shows that the 72% of people in the survey access both water and improved sanitation at the same time, but if we focus only on the proportion of children living in homes with both facilities improved, the percentage drops to 65%.
These results are extremely important when taking into consideration that early childhood is precisely the most affected by the diseases associated with the lack of adequate water and sanitation.
Indeed, the mortality associated with diarrhea is the third cause of under-5 mortality in the world.
In turn, it is studying that children who will suffer from diseases related to lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation may experience delays in physical and cognitive growthwhich can affect their ability to learn and develop optimally.
And it is this lack of capacity to accumulate human capital, either due to premature death or the sequelae that remain due to illnesses, which translates into lack of opportunities and loss of income.
So, economically valuing these losses, which are avoidable!, is crucial when analyzing the costs of investment in infrastructure and surely, what seemed so expensive at first, turns out to be less onerous than thought.
* PhD in Economics, Professor of Economics, UCEMA
You may also like
