Costs of connecting a household to a water network can be up to 30 percent more when corruption is involved, said a report released at the recent World Water Week in Stockholm by the Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International and the Water Integrity Network, which fights corruption in the sector. Corruption at every point along the delivery chain – from policy design and budgeting to building, maintaining and operating water networks – increases costs and affects sanitation.
The report is the first of its kind to cover corruption in the water sector – bribery in water delivery, the looting of irrigation and hydropower funds through suspect procurements, and the manipulation of water management and allocation policies.
“Corruption’s impact on water is a fundamental governance problem, yet it is not sufficiently addressed in the many global policy initiatives for environmental sustainability, development, and food and energy security. This must change,” said Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International.
In India, for example, the report estimates that corruption adds at least 25 percent to irrigation contracts, and the proceeds help maintain a corrupt system of political handouts and compromised oversight.
Though many of the report’s examples involve poorer countries, the wealthier countries of North America and Western Europe are not immune to water-related corruption. Water contract tenders in Grenoble, Milan, New Orleans and Atlanta have been plagued by corruption. Cases of bid rigging and price fixing in water infrastructure have come up in Sweden, and in Chicago water budgets fell victim to misuse for political campaigning.
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