India: biggest recipient of water and sanitation aid

Updated - Wednesday 03 June 2009

Despite New Delhi's self-reliant public stance, India receives almost twice as much development assistance for water and sanitation as any other country, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). An OECD note [1] published in February 2009, says India accounts for 13 per cent of all water and sanitation aid, while Iraq - the next biggest recipient - gets 7 per cent. Bangladesh is fourth on the list with 5 per cent.

India received about US$ 830 million (€ 616 million) a year in water and sanitation aid in 2006-7, more than double the amount provided to China. New Delhi's biggest backer is Japan, which supplied US$ 635 million (€ 471 million) of assistance in 2006-7. Bangladesh received US$ 301 million (€ 223 million) for water and sanitation in 2006-7

Since South Asia has “the lion's share of children dying from diarrhoea and disease” and, especially India lags behind in sanitation, it is not surprising that donors are targeting the region for water and sanitation aid, Henry Northover, head of policy at WaterAid, said.

[1] OECD (2009). Measuring aid to water supply and sanitation. 8 p. Download here.

Source: James Lamont, Financial Times, 7 Apr 2009 [re-published on Rediff.com, 10 Apr 2009]