Announcement of Water and Sanitation Broad Partnership Initiative (WASABI)

March 16, 2006

Taking the opportunity of the 4th World Water Forum and the Ministerial Conference to be held from March 16 (Thu) in Mexico City, Japan will announce its new ODA policy initiative on water and sanitation, Water and Sanitation Broad Partnership Initiative (WASABI).
Improved access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation is a target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), constituting a vitally important element for attaining other goals such as eradication of poverty and hunger. There are, however, about 1.1 billion people without access to safe drinking water and about 2.6 billion people without basic sanitation.

Japan is the world's largest donor on water and sanitation. During 2000-2004, Japan implemented ODA amounting to US $4.6 billion, which accounted for 41% of the DAC members' total in this field.
This Initiative aims at strengthening support to the self-help efforts of the developing countries by making use of Japan's experience, expertise and technology concerning water and sanitation based on broad partnership with international organizations, other donor countries, NGOs, etc. To this end, Japan will implement comprehensive measures as follows:
(1) Promotion of integrated water resource management (IWRM)
(2) Provision of safe drinking water and sanitation
(3) Support regarding water use for food production and other purposes
(4) Water pollution prevention and ecosystem conservation
(5) Mitigation of damage from water-related disasters

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