KYOTO, Japan, March 16: The United Nations and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are this week to firm commitments to the 510 million-dollar Water for Asian Cities Programme to provide millions with access to clean water and sanitation.

A memorandum of understanding is expected to be signed Tuesday that would “build a better climate for investment,” Wouter Lincklaen Arriens, the ADB’s chief water specialist, said Sunday on the sidelines of the Third World Water Forum.

The program, launched by the ADB and UN-Habitat at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg last August, aims to contribute to the UN goal of halving to one billion the number of people with limited access to fresh water resources and sanitation by 2015.

The problem of fresh water is particularly critical in Asia, as one in three have no access to safe drinking water and one in three have no basic sanitation, Arriens said.

A 10 million-dollar grant shared equally by the two agencies jump-started the program, which hopes to clearly establish guidelines for transparent and accountable tariff reforms, Arriens said.

Such tariff reform will enable the poor to connect with municipal water utilities, rather than spend more on obtaining water through other sources, Arriens said.

“Most utilities serve the middle class and the rich, with the poor forced to pay 10 and 20 times the amount utilities charge for water supplies,” he said. “Higher tariffs will help connect the poor and they will eventually pay less than they do now.”—AFP