[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1973 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1973
To make access to safe water and sanitation for developing countries a
specific policy objective of the United States foreign assistance
programs, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 28, 2005
Mr. Blumenauer (for himself, Mr. Shaw, Mr. Lantos, Mr. Leach, Mr.
George Miller of California, and Mr. Tancredo) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To make access to safe water and sanitation for developing countries a
specific policy objective of the United States foreign assistance
programs, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Water for the Poor Act of 2005''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Water-related diseases are a human tragedy, killing up
to 5 million people annually, preventing millions of people
from leading healthy lives, and undermining development
efforts.
(2) A child dies an average of every 15 seconds because of
lack of access to safe water and adequate sanitation.
(3) In the poorest countries in the world, one out of five
children dies from a preventable, water-related disease.
(4) Lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate
sanitation, and poor hygiene practices are directly responsible
for the vast majority of diarrheal diseases which kill over 2
million children each year.
(5) At any given time, half of all people in the developing
world are suffering from one or more of the main diseases
associated with inadequate provision of water supply and
sanitation services.
(6) Over 1.2 billion people, one in every four people in
the developing world, lack access to safe drinking water.
(7) Over 2.4 billion people, two in every five people in
the developing world, lack access to basic sanitation services.
(8) Nearly 500 million people are affected by water stress
or serious water scarcity. Under current trends, two-thirds of
the world's population may be subject to moderate to high water
stress by 2025.
(9) Access to safe water and sanitation and improved
hygiene are significant factors in controlling the spread of
disease in the developing world and positively affecting worker
productivity and economic development.
(10) Increasing access to safe water and sanitation
advances efforts toward other development objectives, such as
fighting poverty and hunger, promoting primary education and
gender equality, reducing child mortality, promoting
environmental stability, improving the lives of slum dwellers,
and strengthening national security.
(11) Providing safe supplies of water and sanitation and
hygiene improvements would save millions of lives by reducing
the prevalence of water-borne diseases, water-based diseases,
water-privation diseases, and water-related vector diseases.
(12) Because women and girls in developing countries are
often the carriers of water, lack of access to safe water and
sanitation disproportionately affects women and limits women's
opportunities at education, livelihood, and financial
independence.
(13) Every $1 invested in safe water and sanitation would
yield an economic return of between $3 and $34, depending on
the region.
(14) Developing sustainable financing mechanisms, such as
pooling mechanisms and revolving funds, is necessary for the
long-term viability of improved water and sanitation services.
(15) The annual level of investment needed to meet the
water and sanitation needs of developing countries far exceeds
the amount of Official Development Assistance (ODA) and
spending by governments of developing countries, so
facilitating and attracting greater public and private
investment is essential.
(16) Meeting the water and sanitation needs of the lowest-
income developing countries will require an increase in the
resources available as grants from donor countries.
(17) The long-term sustainability of improved water and
sanitation services can be advanced by promoting community
level action and engagement with civil society.
(18) Target 10 of the United Nations Millennium Development
Goals is to reduce by half the proportion of people without
sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015.
(19) The participants in the 2002 World Summit on
Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa,
including the United States, agreed to the Plan of
Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development
which included an agreement to work to reduce by one-half ``the
proportion of people who are unable to reach or afford safe
drinking water,'' and ``the proportion of people without access
to basic sanitation'' by 2015.
(20) At the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the
United States announced the Water for the Poor Initiative,
committing $970 million for fiscal years 2003 through 2005 to
improve sustainable management of fresh water resources and
accelerate and expand international efforts to achieve the goal
of cutting in half by 2015 the proportion of people who are
unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water.
(21) United Nations General Assembly Resolution 58/217
(February 9, 2004) proclaimed ``the period from 2005 to 2015
the International Decade for Action, `Water for Life', to
commence on World Water Day, 22 March 2005'' for the purpose of
increasing the focus of the international community on water-
related issues at all levels and on the implementation of
water-related programs and projects.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) in order to make the most effective use of amounts of
Official Development Assistance (ODA) for water and sanitation
and avoid waste and duplication, the United States should seek
to establish innovative international coordination mechanisms
based on best practices in other development sectors;
(2) the United States should greatly increase the amount of
Official Development Assistance made available to carry out
section 104D of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as added by
section 4(a) of this Act;
(3) United States water and sanitation assistance programs
should reflect an appropriate balance of grants, loans,
investment insurance, loan guarantees, and other assistance to
ensure affordability and equity in the provision of access to
safe water and sanitation for the very poor;
(4) United States water and sanitation assistance programs,
to the extent possible, should support the poverty reduction
strategies of recipient countries;
(5) United States water and sanitation assistance programs
should promote community-based approaches in the provision of
affordable and equitable access to safe water and sanitation,
including the involvement of civil society; and
(6) protecting the supply and availability of safe water
requires sound environmental management.
SEC. 4. ASSISTANCE TO PROVIDE SAFE WATER AND SANITATION.
(a) In General.--Part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22
U.S.C. 2151 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 104C the
following new section:
``SEC. 104D. ASSISTANCE TO PROVIDE SAFE WATER AND SANITATION.
``(a) Purposes.--The purposes of assistance authorized by this
section are--
``(1) to promote good health, economic development, poverty
reduction, women's empowerment, and environmental
sustainability by providing assistance to expand access to safe
water and sanitation, promoting integrated water resource
management, and improving hygiene for people around the world;
``(2) to seek to reduce by one-half from the baseline year
1990 the proportion of people who are unable to reach or afford
safe drinking water and the proportion of people without access
to basic sanitation by 2015;
``(3) to focus water and sanitation assistance toward the
countries and people with the greatest need;
``(4) to promote affordability and equity in the provision
of access to safe water and sanitation for the very poor,
women, and other vulnerable populations;
``(5) to promote long-term sustainability in the affordable
and equitable provision of access to safe water and sanitation
through the creation of innovative financing mechanisms such as
national revolving funds, and by strengthening the capacity of
recipient governments and communities to formulate and
implement policies that expand access to safe water and
sanitation in a sustainable fashion, including securing loans
and strategic planning;
``(6) to secure the greatest amount of resources possible,
encourage private investment in water and sanitation
infrastructure and services, particularly in lower middle-
income countries, without creating unsustainable debt for low-
income countries or unaffordable water and sanitation costs for
the very poor; and
``(7) to promote the capacity of recipient governments to
provide affordable, equitable, and sustainable access to safe
water and sanitation.
``(b) Authorization.--To carry out the purposes of subsection (a),
the President is authorized to furnish assistance for programs in
developing countries to provide affordable and equitable access to safe
water and sanitation.
``(c) Activities Supported.--Assistance provided under subsection
(b) shall, to the maximum extent practicable, be used to--
``(1) expand affordable and equitable access to safe water
and sanitation for underserved populations;
``(2) support the construction, maintenance, upkeep,
repair, and operation of water delivery and sanitation systems;
``(3) improve the safety and reliability of water supplies,
including environmental management; and
``(4) improve the institutional capacity of recipient
governments, including capacity-building programs for improved
water resource management.
``(d) Local Currency.--The President may use payments made in local
currencies under an agreement made under title I of the Agricultural
Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 (7 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to
provide assistance under this section, including assistance for
activities related to drilling or maintaining wells.''.
(b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 104(c) of the Agricultural Trade
Development and Assistance Act of 1954 (7 U.S.C. 1704(c)) is amended by
adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(9) Safe water.--To provide assistance under section 104D
of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to promote good health,
economic development, poverty reduction, women's empowerment,
and environmental sustainability by improving the safety of
water supplies, including programs related to drilling or
maintaining wells.''.
SEC. 5. SAFE WATER AND SANITATION STRATEGY.
(a) Strategy.--The Administrator of the United States Agency for
International Development, in consultation with the heads of other
appropriate Federal departments and agencies, international
organizations, international financial institutions, recipient
governments, United States and international nongovernmental
organizations, indigenous civil society, and other appropriate
entities, shall develop and implement a strategy to further the United
States foreign assistance objective to provide affordable and equitable
access to safe water and sanitation in developing countries.
(b) Content.--The strategy required by subsection (a) shall
include--
(1) an assessment of the activities that have been carried
out, or that are planned to be carried out, by all appropriate
Federal departments and agencies to improve affordable and
equitable access to safe water and sanitation and hygiene in
all countries that receive assistance from the United States
Agency for International Development;
(2) specific and measurable goals, benchmarks, and
timetables to achieve the objective described in subsection
(a);
(3) an assessment of the level of resources that are needed
each year to achieve the goals, benchmarks, and timetables
described in paragraph (2);
(4) methods to mobilize and leverage the financial,
technical, and managerial expertise of businesses, governments,
nongovernmental organizations, and civil society in the form of
public-private alliances;
(5) methods to encourage reforms and increase the capacity
of foreign governments to formulate and implement policies that
expand access to safe water and sanitation in an affordable,
equitable, and sustainable fashion, including securing loans
and strategic planning;
(6) methods to coordinate and integrate United States water
and sanitation assistance programs with other United States
development assistance programs to achieve the objective
described in subsection (a);
(7) methods to better coordinate United States water and
sanitation assistance programs with programs of other donor
countries and entities to achieve the objective described in
subsection (a);
(8) methods to take into account the different needs of
countries with an absolute lack of resources to expand water
and sanitation access and countries with the need to better
allocate potentially sufficient existing resources and the
different activities appropriate to each, as well as countries
with existing markets for investment in water and sanitation
and countries without existing markets for investment in water
and sanitation; and
(9) methods to take into account the need for an
appropriate balance of grants, loans, investment insurance,
loan guarantees, and other assistance to ensure affordability
and equity in the provision of access to safe water and
sanitation for the very poor.
(c) Reports.--
(1) Initial report.--Not later than 180 days after the date
of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the United
States Agency for International Development shall submit to the
appropriate congressional committees a report that describes
the strategy required by subsection (a).
(2) Subsequent reports.--Not less than once every year
after the submission of the initial report under paragraph (1)
until 2015, the Administrator shall submit to the appropriate
congressional committees a report on the status of the
implementation of the strategy, progress made in achieving the
objective described in subsection (a), and any changes to the
strategy since the date of the submission of the last report.
(3) Definition.--In this subsection, the term ``appropriate
congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on International Relations and
the Committee on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the
Committee on Appropriations of the Senate.
SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) In General.--There are authorized to be appropriated for fiscal
year 2006 and each subsequent fiscal year such sums as may be necessary
to carry out this Act and the amendments made by this Act.
(b) Other Amounts.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to the
authorization of appropriations in subsection (a) shall be in addition
to the amounts otherwise available to carry out this Act and the
amendments made by this Act.
(c) Availability.--Amounts appropriated pursuant to the
authorization of appropriations under section (a) are authorized to
remain available until expended.
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