Water supply and sanitation in Latin America

Water supply and sanitation in Latin America is characterized by insufficient access and in many cases by poor service quality, with detrimental impacts on public health. Water and sanitation services are provided by a vast array of mostly local service providers under an often fragmented policy and regulatory framework. Financing of water and sanitation remains a serious challenge.

Access Access to water and sanitation remains insufficient, in particular in rural areas and for the poor. It also differs substantially among and within countries. According to the Joint Monitoring Program of the World Health Organization and UNICEF, in 2004 the share of the population which was connected to an improved water source varied from 54% in Haiti to 100% in Uruguay. Altogether, 50 million people, or 9% of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean did not have access to improved water supply, and 125 million or 23% did not have access to improved sanitation. Increasing access remains a challenge, in particular given the poor financial health of service providers and fiscal constraints on behalf of central and local governments. After the Mediterranean, the Caribbean Sea is the second most polluted sea. Pollution (in the form of up to 300,000 tonnes of solid garbage dumped into the Caribbean Sea each year) is progressively endangering marine ecosystems, wiping out species, and harming the livelihoods of the local people, which is primarily reliant on tourism and fishing. As far as sanitation is concerned, only 51% of the population has access to sewers. Only an estimated 15% of the collected wastewater finds its way into wastewater treatment plants, which often are not properly functioning. 26% of the population has access to forms of sanitation other than sewers, including septic tanks and various types of latrines. Many scholars have found that while 20% of potable water is effectively treated in Latin America, there is sufficient infrastructure to treat 30% to 35% of water.

Water use The per capita water use in Latin America varies greatly among countries, among cities in the same country, and between urban and rural areas, and obviously among those with a house connection, a public tap or no improved water source at all. The average net urban water use (i.e. excluding distribution losses) was estimated at 240 liter/capita/day, a level that is about as high as in the United States and almost twice as high as in Central Europe. The highest water use can be found in some utilities in Brazil and Argentina, where water resources are abundant and water use is almost 500 liter/capita/day. The lowest water use is in Aguas de Illimani serving La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, with less than 50 liter/capita/day. In rural areas water use is sometimes even lower than this level.

Health Effects Studies in Latin American cities have shown that consuming water that has not been treated with adequate sanitation services introduces many human health issues to the public, especially to residents of poor and informal settlements. Low-income urban residents consuming polluted water are more likely to become ill with "poverty diseases" such as gastrointestinal and infectious water-borne diseases, as well as chronic diseases that degrade human health over time. Consumption of contaminated water and lack of access to clean water are also associated with health disorders that stem from emotional and physical stress and water-use conflicts. One of the most notable disease outbreaks in Latin America was the region's 1991-1993 cholera epidemic. One study in the shantytowns of Lima, Peru reported that approximately 15% of these poor settlements have in-house water provisions, which forces these residents to obtain water from informal water vendors not administered by local governments or utility companies. The quality of this water is unhealthy, their origin and state of sanitization is unclear, and this water has reportedly contained visible contaminants. Coupled with unsanitary storage tanks that further contaminate this water, water-borne gastrointestinal diseases affected 22% of this poor urban population at the time of the study. Other studies in Argentina have reported that formal provisions of potable water by municipal governments have been found to contain dangerous levels of contaminants and bacteria. 10% of the country's population are exposed to consuming arsenic found in the water they consume, principally in areas that lack water treatment infrastructure.

Quality of service Even for those having access to water supply, poor quality of service is often experienced, in the form of intermittent supply, low pressure and poor drinking water quality. However, differences in service quality between countries and between cities in Latin America are vast, and some service providers achieve a quality of service on par with developed countries.

Institutional responsibility See also List of responsibilities in the water supply and sanitation sector in Latin America and the Caribbean

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