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Latin America and Caribbean
Urban drinking water supply and sanitation
Urban water supply and sanitation is relatively good in Latin America compared with other parts of the world. Nevertheless, about 27 per cent of the population still have no direct access to safe drinking water. The reliability of supplies and the quality of drinking water must be improved. According to the figures of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), only about one-quarter of drinking water is subjected to regular quality controls; 219 million people must live with supplies being interrupted, often for hours at a time.
In Latin America, more than 86 per cent of domestic wastewater is untreated. In the light of increasing urbanisation this situation comes at a high environmental cost.
Germany plays a lead role among bilateral donors in the water sector in Latin America, specialising in particular on shaping the political framework, water tariffs, and stakeholder participation in planning and tariff-setting. The aim of Germany's involvement in this sector is to play a part in shaping the difficult political and social dialogue on the topic of water so that the sometimes embittered discussions about the privatisation of the water sector, future tariffs and institutional structures produce a constructive outcome that actually benefits the poor in particular.
