Water Corruption prevents progress.

• Author: Block, Ben
• Position: EYE ON EARTH

"Dirty" water politics is responsible for much of the stalled progress in improving access to water resources worldwide, according to the 2008 Global Corruption Report. "Corruption in water can lead to skewed and inequitable water resources allocation, to uncontrolled and illegal pollution, to groundwater over-extraction, and to degraded ecosystems," said Andrew Hudson, principal technical advisor to the United Nations Development Programme, at the report's launch in June.

Water corruption ranges from petty bribes to corporate manipulation of public water services. When added up, corruption raises the price for water services between 10 and 30 percent worldwide each year, the report said. Corruption also endangers countries' chances of meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water--potentially raising the cost of achieving the goal by US$48 billion.

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