[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 126 (Monday, September 20, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7222-S7224]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATOR PAUL SIMON WATER FOR THE WORLD ACT OF 2009
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 374, S. 624.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will state the bill by title.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 624) to provide 100 million people with first-
time access to safe drinking water and sanitation on a
sustainable basis by 2015 by improving the capacity of the
United States Government to fully implement the Senator Paul
Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill,
which had been reported from the Committee on Foreign Relations, with
an amendment to strike all after the enacting clause and insert in lieu
thereof the following:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Senator Paul Simon Water for
the World Act of 2010''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005
(Public Law 109-121)--
(A) makes access to safe water and sanitation for
developing countries a specific policy objective of United
States foreign assistance programs;
(B) requires the Secretary of State to--
(i) develop a strategy to elevate the role of water and
sanitation policy; and
(ii) improve the effectiveness of United States assistance
programs undertaken in support of that strategy;
(C) codifies Target 10 of the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals; and
(D) seeks to reduce by half between 1990 (the baseline
year) and 2015--
(i) the proportion of people who are unable to reach or
afford safe drinking water; and
(ii) the proportion of people without access to basic
sanitation.
(2) On December 20, 2006, the United Nations General
Assembly, in GA Resolution 61/192, declared 2008 as the
International Year of Sanitation, in recognition of the
impact of sanitation on public health, poverty reduction,
economic and social development, and the environment.
(3) On August 1, 2008, Congress passed H. Con. Res. 318,
which--
(A) supports the goals and ideals of the International Year
of Sanitation; and
(B) recognizes the importance of sanitation on public
health, poverty reduction, economic and social development,
and the environment.
(4) While progress is being made on safe water and
sanitation efforts--
(A) more than 884,000,000 people throughout the world lack
access to safe drinking water; and
(B) 2 of every 5 people in the world do not have access to
basic sanitation services.
(5) The health consequences of unsafe drinking water and
poor sanitation are significant, accounting for--
(A) nearly 10 percent of the global burden of disease; and
(B) more than 2,000,000 deaths each year.
(6) Water scarcity has negative consequences for
agricultural productivity and food security for the
1,200,000,000 people who, as of 2010, suffer from chronic
hunger and seriously threatens the ability of the world to
more than double food production to meet the demands of a
projected population of 9,000,000,000 people by 2050.
(7) The effects of climate change are expected to produce
severe consequences for water availability and resource
management in the future, with 2,800,000,000 people in more
than 48 countries expected to face severe and chronic water
shortages by 2025.
(8) According to the November 2008 report entitled,
``Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World'', the National
Intelligence Council expects rapid urbanization and future
population growth to exacerbate already limited access to
water, particularly in agriculture-based economies.
(9) A 2009 report published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences projects that the effects of
climate change will produce long-term droughts and raise sea
levels for the next 1,000 years, regardless of future efforts
to combat climate change.
(10) According to the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment,
commissioned by the United Nations, more than \1/5\ of the
world population relies on freshwater that is either polluted
or excessively withdrawn.
(11) The impact of water scarcity on conflict and
instability is evident in many parts of the world, including
the Darfur region of Sudan, where demand for water resources
has contributed to armed conflict between nomadic ethnic
groups and local farming communities.
(12) In order to further the United States contribution to
safe water and sanitation efforts, it is necessary to--
(A) expand foreign assistance capacity to address the
challenges described in this section; and
(B) represent issues related to water and sanitation at the
highest levels of United States foreign assistance and
diplomatic deliberations, including those related to issues
of global health, food security, the environment, global
warming, and maternal and child mortality.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that the United States should
lead a global effort to bring sustainable access to clean
water and sanitation to poor people throughout the world.
SEC. 4. PURPOSE.
The purpose of this Act is--
(1) to enable first-time access to safe water and
sanitation, on a sustainable basis, for 100,000,000 people in
high priority countries (as designated under section 6(f) of
the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005 (22
U.S.C. 2152h note) within 6 years of the date of enactment of
this Act through direct funding, development activities, and
partnerships; and
(2) to enhance the capacity of the United States Government
to fully implement the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor
Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-121).
SEC. 5. DEVELOPING UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT CAPACITY.
Section 135 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22
U.S.C. 2152h) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(e) Senior Advisor for Water.--
``(1) In general.--To carry out the purposes of subsection
(a), the Administrator of the United States Agency for
International Development shall designate a senior advisor to
coordinate and conduct the activities described in this
section and the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of
2005 (Public Law 109-121). The advisor shall report directly
to the Administrator and be known as the `Senior Advisor for
Water'.
``(2) Duties.--The Advisor shall--
``(A) implement this section and the Senator Paul Simon
Water for the Poor Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-121);
``(B) develop and oversee implementation in high priority
countries of country-specific water strategies and expertise,
in coordination with appropriate United States Agency for
International Development Mission Directors, to enable the
goal of providing 100,000,000 additional people with
sustainable access to safe water and sanitation through
direct funding, development activities, and partnerships
within 6 years of the date of the enactment of the Senator
Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2010; and
``(C) place primary emphasis on providing safe, affordable,
and sustainable drinking
[[Page S7223]]
water, sanitation, and hygiene in a manner that--
``(i) is consistent with sound water resource management
principles; and
``(ii) utilizes such approaches as direct service
provision, capacity building, institutional strengthening,
regulatory reform, and partnership collaboration; and
``(D) integrate water strategies with country-specific or
regional food security strategies.
``(3) Capacity.--The Advisor shall be designated
appropriate staff and may utilize interagency details or
partnerships with universities, civil society, and the
private sector, as needed, to strengthen implementation
capacity.
``(f) Special Coordinator for International Water.--
``(1) Establishment.--To increase the capacity of the
Department of State to address international issues regarding
safe water, sanitation, integrated river basin management,
and other international water programs, the Secretary of
State shall establish a Special Coordinator for International
Water (referred to in this subsection as the `Special
Coordinator'), who shall report to the Under Secretary for
Democracy and Global Affairs.
``(2) Duties.--The Special Coordinator shall--
``(A) oversee and coordinate the diplomatic policy of the
United States Government with respect to global freshwater
issues, including interagency coordination related to--
``(i) sustainable access to safe drinking water,
sanitation, and hygiene;
``(ii) integrated river basin and watershed management;
``(iii) global food security;
``(iv) transboundary conflict;
``(v) agricultural and urban productivity of water
resources;
``(vi) disaster recovery, response, and rebuilding,
``(vii) pollution mitigation; and
``(viii) adaptation to hydrologic change due to climate
variability; and
``(B) ensure that international freshwater issues are
represented--
``(i) within the United States Government; and
``(ii) in key diplomatic, development, and scientific
efforts with other nations and multilateral organizations.
``(3) Support staff.--The Special Coordinator shall be
designated appropriate staff to support the duties described
in paragraph (2).''.
SEC. 6. SAFE WATER, SANITATION, AND HYGIENE STRATEGY.
Section 6 of the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act
of 2005 (22 U.S.C. 2152h note) is amended--
(1) in subsection (b), by adding at the end the following:
``The Coordinator shall take actions to ensure that the safe
water and sanitation strategy is integrated into any review
or development of a Federal strategy for global development,
global health, or global food security that sets forth or
establishes the United States mission for global development,
guidelines for assistance programs, and how development
policy will be coordinated with policies governing trade,
immigration, and other relevant international issues.'';
(2) in subsection (c), by adding at the end the following:
``In developing the program activities needed to implement
the strategy, the Secretary shall consider the results of the
assessment described in subsection (e)(9).''; and
(3) in subsection (e)--
(A) in paragraph (5), by striking ``and'' at the end;
(B) in paragraph (6), by striking the period at the end and
inserting a semicolon; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
``(7) an assessment of all United States Government foreign
assistance allocated to the drinking water and sanitation
sector during the 3 previous fiscal years, across all United
States Government agencies and programs, including an
assessment of the extent to which the United States
Government's efforts are reaching and supporting the goal of
enabling first-time access to safe water and sanitation on a
sustainable basis for 100,000,000 people in high priority
countries;
``(8) recommendations on what the United States Government
would need to do to achieve and support the goals referred to
in paragraph (7), in support of the United Nation's
Millennium Development Goal on access to safe drinking water;
and
``(9) an assessment of best practices for mobilizing and
leveraging the financial and technical capacity of business,
governments, nongovernmental organizations, and civil society
in forming public-private partnerships that measurably
increase access to safe, affordable, drinking water and
sanitation.''.
SEC. 7. DEVELOPING LOCAL CAPACITY.
The Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005
(Public Law 109-121) is amended--
(1) by redesignating sections 9, 10, and 11 as sections 10,
11, and 12, respectively; and
(2) by inserting after section 8 the following:
``SEC. 9. WATER AND SANITATION INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY-
BUILDING PROGRAM.
``(a) Establishment.--
``(1) In general.--The Secretary of State and the
Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development (referred to in this section as the `Secretary'
and the `Administrator', respectively), in consultation with
host country institutions, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, the Department of Agriculture, and other
agencies, as appropriate, shall establish, in coordination
with mission directors in high priority countries, a program
to build the capacity of host country institutions and
officials responsible for water and sanitation in countries
that receive assistance under section 135 of the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961, including training at appropriate
levels, to--
``(A) provide affordable, equitable, and sustainable access
to safe drinking water and sanitation;
``(B) educate the populations of such countries about the
dangers of unsafe drinking water and lack of proper
sanitation; and
``(C) encourage behavior change to reduce individuals' risk
of disease from unsafe drinking water and lack of proper
sanitation and hygiene.
``(2) Expansion.--The Secretary and the Administrator may
establish the program described in this section in additional
countries if the receipt of such capacity building would be
beneficial for promoting access to safe drinking water and
sanitation, with due consideration given to good governance.
``(3) Capacity.--The Secretary and the Administrator--
``(A) should designate appropriate staff with relevant
expertise to carry out the strategy developed under section
6; and
``(B) may utilize, as needed, interagency details or
partnerships with universities, civil society, and the
private sector to strengthen implementation capacity.
``(b) Designation.--The United States Agency for
International Development Mission Director for each country
receiving a `high priority' designation under section 6(f)
and for each region containing a country receiving such
designation shall report annually to Congress on the status
of--
``(1) designating safe drinking water and sanitation as a
strategic objective;
``(2) integrating the water strategy into a food security
strategy;
``(3) assigning an employee of the United States Agency for
International Development as in-country water and sanitation
manager to coordinate the in-country implementation of this
Act and section 135 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22
U.S.C. 2152h) with host country officials at various levels
of government responsible for water and sanitation, the
Department of State, and other relevant United States
Government agencies; and
``(4) coordinating with the Development Credit Authority
and the Global Development Alliance to further the purposes
of this Act.''.
SEC. 8. OTHER ACTIVITIES SUPPORTED.
In addition to the requirements of section 135(c) of the
Foreign Assistance Act (22 U.S.C. 2152h(c)) the Administrator
should--
``(5) foster global cooperation on research and technology
development, including regional partnerships among water
experts to address safe drinking water, sanitation, water
resource management, and other water-related issues;
``(6) establish regional and cross-border cooperative
activities between scientists and specialists that work to
share technologies and best practices, mitigate shared water
challenges, foster international cooperation, and defuse
cross-border tensions;
``(7) provide grants through the United States Agency for
International Development to foster the development,
dissemination, and increased and consistent use of low cost
and sustainable technologies, such as household water
treatment, hand washing stations, and latrines, for providing
safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene that are
suitable for use in high priority countries, particularly in
places with limited resources and infrastructure;
``(8) in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, Department of Agriculture, the Environmental
Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, and other agencies, as appropriate, conduct
formative and operational research and monitor and evaluate
the effectiveness of programs that provide safe drinking
water and sanitation; and
``(9) integrate efforts to promote safe drinking water,
sanitation and hygiene with existing foreign assistance
programs, as appropriate, including activities focused on
food security, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, maternal and
child health, food security, and nutritional support.''.
SEC. 9. MONITORING AND EVALUATION.
(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of the Congress
that--
(1) achieving United States foreign policy objectives
requires the consistent and systematic evaluation of the
impact of United States foreign assistance programs and
analysis on what programs work and why, when, and where they
work;
(2) the design of assistance programs and projects should
include the collection of relevant baseline data required to
measure outcomes and impacts;
(3) the design of assistance programs and projects should
reflect the knowledge gained from evaluation and analysis;
(4) a culture and practice of high quality evaluation
should be revitalized at agencies managing foreign assistance
programs, which requires that the concepts of evaluation and
analysis are used to inform policy and programmatic
decisions, including the training of aid professionals in
evaluation design and implementation;
(5) the effective and efficient use of funds cannot be
achieved without an understanding of how lessons learned are
applicable in various environments and under similar or
different conditions; and
(6) project evaluations should be used as sources of data
when running broader analyses of development outcomes and
impacts.
(b) Coordination and Integration.--To the extent possible,
the Administrator shall coordinate and integrate evaluation
of United States water programs with the learning,
evaluation, and analysis efforts of the United States Agency
for International Development aimed at measuring development
impact.
[[Page S7224]]
SEC. 10. UPDATED REPORT REGARDING WATER FOR PEACE AND
SECURITY.
Section 11(b) of the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor
Act of 2005, as redesignated by section 7, is amended by
adding at the end the following: ``The report submitted under
this subsection shall include an assessment of current and
likely future political tensions over water sources and
multidisciplinary assessment of the expected impacts of
global climate change on water supplies and agricultural
productivity in 10, 25, and 50 years.''.
SEC. 11. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) In General.--There are authorized to be appropriated
for each of the 6 fiscal years beginning after the date of
the enactment of this Act such sums as may be necessary to
carry out this Act and the amendments made by this Act,
pursuant to the criteria set forth in the Senator Paul Simon
Water for the Poor Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-121).
(b) Use of Funds.--Any amounts appropriated to implement
this Act shall be primarily allocated for activities related
to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, with the passage of the Paul Simon
Water for the World Act, the Senate will take an important step in
fighting poverty and saving the lives of the world's poor by increasing
access to the most fundamental human need--clean water.
I introduced this bill in honor of my friend and mentor, the man
whose seat I now occupy in the Senate, the late Senator Paul Simon.
Solving the global water crisis was his last great campaign and the
topic of a book he authored called ``Tapped Out: The Coming World
Crisis in Water and What We Can Do About It.''
If he were here today, he would be proud of the Senate's action.
I was joined in this effort by Senators Bob Corker, Patty Murray and
31 other cosponsors from both sides of the aisle--and would like to
thank all of them for their support and commitment to addressing one of
the defining challenges of the 21st century.
I would also like to thank Senator Tom Coburn for working
constructively with me to advance legislation that we both could agree
upon. And finally I would like to express my appreciation to Foreign
Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry and Ranking Member Richard
Lugar for their critical support of this bill.
While we have made progress in recent years on clean water and
sanitation, tragically nearly 1 billion people around the world still
lack access to clean, safe water. More than 2 billion people lack
access to basic sanitation. Most of these people live on less than $2 a
day.
They are the voiceless and the powerless of the world, but today the
U.S. Senate sent a clear message to them, ``We hear you, we see what
you're going through, and we want to help with this most basic of human
needs.''
We want to help because the global water crisis is not just a problem
for Africa or the Middle East, but rather a problem for all of
humanity.
Mr. President, competition for water is often at the heart of
international conflict--just look at the conflict in Darfur.
The burdens of water in the developing world fall most solidly on the
women. So many thousands of women in Africa spend hours every day
carrying water back and forth.
Young girls are often denied the opportunity to go to school because
they have work to do. They have to carry water, often walking several
hours both ways.
And sick children miss nearly 300 million school days a year from
water-related causes. An estimated 320 million productive work days are
lost to illness resulting from unsafe drinking water and lack of access
to sanitation.
Quite simply, the global water crisis is a quiet killer. In the
developing world, water-related diseases claim the lives of 5,000
children every day.
During my trips overseas, I have seen the hardships that befall
populations without clean water and sanitation, and I've also seen the
transformation that gaining access to these basic human needs creates.
Earlier this year I traveled to Africa with Senator Sherrod Brown
where we visited a number of countries, including Ethiopia. We visited
a slum outside Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, where we were greeted by
two beautiful little girls who gave us flowers and invited us to a
coffee ceremony.
The 380 inhabitants of this area lived without running water until a
nongovernmental organization called AMREF installed a simple but
critical water kiosk that now provides safe drinking water, showers,
toilet facilities, and even jobs to the community.
The same two girls who greeted us beamed with pride as we looked at
the source of water and sanitation that did not exist before. What
seems so ordinary to us in the developed world, access to water and
sanitation, changed the lives of these two young girls living in
squalor outside Addis Ababa.
But you do not have to travel halfway around the world to see the
devastating consequences of a lack of clean water and sanitation--
travel just 90 minutes from Miami to Haiti.
There are no public sewage treatment or disposal systems anywhere in
the country. Even in the capital, Port-au-Prince, a city of 2 million
people, the drainage canals are choked with garbage and sewage.
And this was before the earthquake.
It is no wonder that Haiti has the highest infant and child mortality
rate in the Western Hemisphere. One-third of Haiti's children do not
live to see the age of five.
The leading killer? Water-borne diseases: hepatitis, typhoid and
diarrhea.
The goal of the bill passed today is to reach an additional 100
million of the world's poorest people with sustainable, first-time
access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation over the next 6
years.
This would represent the largest single commitment of any donor
country to meeting the Millennium Development Goal on water, which is
to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe
drinking water and sanitation by 2015.
I believe American leadership in helping provide the world's poor
with such a fundamental human need as clean water is not only the right
thing to do, but the smart thing to do.
In fact, for every $1 invested in safe drinking water and sanitation,
an estimated $8 is saved in work time, productivity and health care
costs in poor countries.
Throughout history, civilized nations have put aside political
differences to address compelling issues of life and survival. Today,
on this issue, by passing the Paul Simon Water for the World Act, the
Senate did just that.
I now urge my colleagues in the House to work with Representatives
Earl Blumenauer and Donald Payne, House Foreign Affairs Committee
Chairman Howard Berman and Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and
Speaker Pelosi to do the same.
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee-
reported substitute amendment be considered; that a Durbin amendment,
which is at the desk, be agreed to; that the substitute amendment, as
amended, be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be read the third
time and passed; that the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table
with no intervening action or debate; and that any statements related
to the bill be printed in the Record.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment (No. 4620) was agreed to.
(The amendment is printed in today's Record under ``Text of
Amendments.'')
The committee amendment in the nature of a substitute, as amended,
was agreed to.
The bill (S. 624), as amended, was ordered to be engrossed for a
third reading, was read the third time, and passed.
____________________