Women for Water implementing SDG Target 6.2 in Bulgaria

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Protecting human health and well-being
through equitable access to WASH 

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Bulgarian WfWP member Earth Forever has worked actively with the Protocol on Water and Health since 2008. Its Executive Director – Mrs. Diana Iskreva, had served as a member and Deputy Chair of the Protocol Compliance Committee for two mandates. With support of the Ministry of Health Earth Forever in 2017 launched a project to assess and improve equitable access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation and hygiene for all in Bulgaria. The results are presented in the publication "Situational Analysis to Equitable Access to Water and Sanitation in Bulgaria".

The main aim of the Protocol is to protect human health and well being by better water management, including the protection of water ecosystems, and by preventing, controlling and reducing water-related diseases. The Protocol is the first international agreement of its kind adopted specifically to attain an adequate supply of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation for everyone, and effectively protect water used as a source of drinking water. 

Recognizing access to water and sanitation as human rights in 2010, has confirmed the commitment of governments to provide access to drinking water and sanitation services that are available, physically accessible, high quality and safe, acceptable from the point of view of ensuring the human dignity and privacy, as well as affordable for all without discrimination.
 
The emphasis on equity is very strongly embedded in the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030, especially in Sustainable Development Goal 6 for water and sanitation posing ambitious targets:

• By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all;
• By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.

 
For the pan-European region, the Protocol on Water and Health, jointly administered by UNECE – WHO/Europe comprises a solid framework to implement the human right to water and sanitation and to achieve the SDGs. The Protocol requires Member States to provide access to water and sanitation for everyone and with particular concern to promote equal access to water and sanitation for everyone especially those who suffer a disadvantage or social exclusion. In June 1999, Bulgaria signed the Protocol on Water and Health, UNECE-WHO / Europe, but has not yet ratified it.
 
The critical factors to guarantee equitable access to water and sanitation are:

• reducing geographical disparities;
• overcoming the obstacles for access to vulnerable and marginalized groups;
• overcoming barriers to access for vulnerable and marginalized groups; and
• solving the problems related to affordability as elaborated in detail in the publication No One Left Behind: Good Practices for Equal Access to Water and Sanitation in the Pan-European Region (UNECE, WHO / Europe, 2012).

 
The Equitable Access Scorecard is an analytical tool to support governments; it was developed under the Protocol on Water and Health that can help governments and other stakeholders to determine the baseline status of equitable access via the process of self-assessment, identifying of priorities and discussion of measures to be taken in the future.
 
The application of the Equitable Access Score Card acknowledged the achievements of Bulgaria towards providing access to safe water and sanitation to its population but also traced the gaps and issues that have to be taken into immediate consideration as far as geographical disparities and services specifically adapted to vulnerable and marginalized groups of the society.

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SDG Target 6.2

Achieving universal access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene by 2030 is a major challenge in many parts of the world. Target 6.2 calls for countries to end open defecation, to ensure that everyone has access to a basic toilet and to put in place systems for safe management of excreta.
The global population using at least a basic sanitation service increased from 59 per cent in 2000 to 68 per cent between in 2015. However, 2.3 billion people still lacked basic services, 70 per cent were in rural areas, and just 1 in 10 countries below 95 per cent coverage is on track to achieve universal coverage by 2030.
Furthermore, 4.5 billion people worldwide lacked a safely managed sanitation service in 2015, where excreta were safely disposed of in-situ or treated off-site.
Target 6.2 also highlights the importance of hygiene and calls for special attention to the needs of women and girls. Handwashing with soap and water is widely recognized as a top priority for reducing disease transmission.
​The global status is not yet known, but least developed countries (LDCs) had the lowest coverage: only 27 per cent had basic handwashing facilities, though coverage was higher in urban areas.
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Source: SDG 6 Synthesis Report 2018 on Water and Sanitation