TOWARDS A MORE SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF WATER RESOURCES IN HONDURAS

The SDG 6 initiative: a framework of work to support the strengthening and sustainability of the water sector in Honduras.

Author: Raúl Artiga

Honduras offers an important water supply that represents a determining factor for its sustainable development. The Honduran territory is made up of 19 river basins discharging an average of 92,813 Mm3 of precipitation. The water network in the country and the formation of basins is supplied by a rainfall pattern fluctuating between 500 and 3,800 mm of rain per year. According to the information from the last hydrological balance generated in 2003, the total supply for Honduras has been evaluated at 87,653 Mm3[1].

Despite these important water resources, their deficient management in Honduras has become a restriction for the social and economical development[2]. To date, the country doesn’t possess an updated water balance to establish a real demand of the resource, which limits its planning capacity leading to an efficient management of water.

Just like the majority of Central American countries, services of water and sanitation are deficient in terms of coverage, regularity and quality of services. Aquifers are at the edge of over exploitation and water quality is being deteriorated due to domestic and industrial pollution effects, which is exacerbated because the country doesn’t realize a systematic monitoring of the water bodies’ quality.

In addition, the current and existing normative and institutionalism applied by the government entities reflect contradictions hindering the effective institutional management, and deepening the problems related to public administration, regulation and governability of the water sector.

To these issues of information, institutional, technical and of resources’ administration, we can add the increase of extreme hydrologic weather phenomena related to climate change, which manifests itself through serious flood and droughts in the territory, especially among the most vulnerable areas.

The Honduran Government has defined its main development targets and goals. For this, a schedule framework has been prepared, as well as policy and institutional organization tools for an efficient public management guaranteeing their achievement. In this context, the country has committed itself to work for the 2030 agenda[3], implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the achievement of their respective targets. This new agenda includes the achievement of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including the SDG 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

In this sense, since May 2016, the Secretary of General Government Coordination (SGGC) with the support of the Global Water Partnership (GWP) together with the Support Program to the Public Administration and the Regional Integration (SPARI) of the European Union, have promoted the process denominated “SDG 6 Initiative”.

The overall goal of this initiative for the country is to create the institutional conditions required to promote the effective implementation of SDG 6 and, on that basis, to strengthen the public management of water and the sustainability of the sector. The specific goals of the initiative are: (i) including SDG 6 within the country’s political and planning frameworks; (ii) supporting the creation/strengthening of monitoring systems for SDG 6; (iii) Strengthening institutional capacities for the implementation of SDGs; and (iv) Supporting the country in its access to funding for the implementation of SDGs.

With this initiative, Honduras is being a pioneer in its organization to guarantee the implementation of SDG 6 and the progresses of this pilot process are expected to be used as a basis to ensure a correct implementation of the other objectives of the 2030 agenda.

The initiative SDG 6 has created a framework of work characterized by the following efforts: (i) Participative: with a multi-sectoral and inter-institutional approach, initially focused on the active participation of public entities that have responsibilities in the water resources management (ii) Flexible: the process is being permanently assessed according to its progresses and the methodology is subject to possible adjustments. (iii) Results oriented: process focused on the achievement of objectives and results expected.

The water management is multi-dimensional. Hence, the fulfillment of SDG 6 and its targets requires an intersectoral effort coinciding with the government model of organization based on Sectoral Cabinets, with the aim to increase synergies, complementarity, coordination and effectiveness. In this context, the initiative has been launched with the realization of an initial analysis based on the public entities, detailing the relation and contribution of their competencies and attributions to SDG 6.

Subsequently, the work has been based on sectoral plans which allowed highlighting how the institutional planning oriented to sectoral results and its respective indicators, in practice, can perfectly match and contribute to the SGD 6 targets, without prejudice to the fulfillment of their objectives and institutional responsibilities framed in the sectoral and national planning.

Later, after ensuring the alignment of the national planning, it has been translated into a participative process of identification, selection and prioritization of national indicators of the SDG 6 targets. After the creation of these indicators, it has become necessary to define a system of Monitoring, Report and Checking (MRC) of SDG 6 and its respective targets, in line with the Objectives, Results and Targets of the national planning and the Results Based Management’s System adopted by the Government.

After creation of the framework of work and alignment, the initiative moves to the step of Formulation of the Road Map describing the main acitivies, that will orient their sequence, their general nature and their temporality as well as the responsibility of their implementation, execution or coordination under the leading of the SGCG.

The experience has been highly appreciated. As a result, an exchange of experiences between the autorities from Honduras and El Salvador has been scheduled by the end of March 2017, with the support of the UNDP, to share the process, best practices and lessons learned so far.

[1] According to the hydrological balance, the percentage of water’s extraction / uses is mainly due to irrigation with 52.40% of the yearly availability existing in the country. For human consumption it corresponds to 14.32%. In the rubric of hydroelectric energy production, it is evaluated to 13.63% and 5.18% is used for industrial production. It is estimated that mining process consumes 0.01% and the remaining 14.45% corresponds to other uses.

[2] Honduras has a total surface of 112.492 km2. The country is divided into 18 departments and the population is estimated at 8, 098,000 inhabitants (INE, 2013), 64.5% of the country’s population lives in extreme poverty. The Gross National Income per capita was 4 USD in 2014.

[3] In september 2015, the countries members of United Nations approved in their 70º session the New 2030 Development Agenda.