Attaining access for all : pro-poor policy and regulation for water and energy services

Asia and the Pacific is home to about 1.8 billion people who survive on less than $2.00 a day and 903 million people living below the poverty line of less than $1.25 a day. More than 403 million people in rural areas and 93 million people in urban areas lack access to adequate water, while more than 1.9 billion people in the region are living without basic sanitation facilities. About 1 billion people in in the region do not have access to electricity. One of the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights implicitly entitles everyone to a right to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible, and affordable water for personal and domestic uses. At a time when many programs have been introduced to reform water and energy infrastructure and utility service industries by restructuring, introducing competition, facilitating private sector participation, and introducing different types of regulatory reform, it is crucial to ensure that the poorest of the poor actually gain increased access to affordable utility services. Although universal access to safe, reliable energy is not itself an MDG, it is a necessary condition for providing the poor with safe water and sanitation, for maintaining adequate standards of living, and for achieving any of the other MDGs. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) recognizes the importance of electricity and water access to the poor and has committed to providing
such access by establishing the Energy for All and Water for All initiatives. However, while broad efforts aimed at regulatory reform and increasing energy and water access may be helpful, specifically targeted interventions, measures, and approaches are often needed to ensure that the poor benefit from these efforts. This publication, Attaining Access for All: Pro-Poor Policy and Regulation for Water and Energy Services (Pro-Poor Guide), is designed to identify specific infrastructure and utility service reform measures that can
be taken to advance the interests of the poor. [authors abstract]