I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1973
To make access to safe water and sanitation for developing countries a 
specific policy objective of the United States foreign assistance programs, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 28, 2005
Mr. BLUMENAUER (for himself, Mr. SHAW, Mr. LANTOS, Mr. LEACH, Mr. 
GEORGE MILLER of California, and Mr. TANCREDO) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on International Rela-
tions 
A BILL 
To make access to safe water and sanitation for developing 
countries a specific policy objective of the United States 
foreign assistance programs, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Water for the Poor 
Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Water-related diseases are a human trag-
edy, killing up to 5 million people annually, pre-
venting millions of people from leading healthy lives, 
and undermining development efforts. 
(2) A child dies an average of every 15 seconds 
because of lack of access to safe water and adequate 
sanitation. 
(3) In the poorest countries in the world, one 
out of five children dies from a preventable, water-
related disease. 
(4) Lack of access to safe drinking water, inad-
equate sanitation, and poor hygiene practices are di-
rectly responsible for the vast majority of diarrheal 
diseases which kill over 2 million children each year. 
(5) At any given time, half of all people in the 
developing world are suffering from one or more of 
the main diseases associated with inadequate provi-
sion of water supply and sanitation services. 
(6) Over 1.2 billion people, one in every four 
people in the developing world, lack access to safe 
drinking water. 
(7) Over 2.4 billion people, two in every five 
people in the developing world, lack access to basic 
sanitation services.
(8) Nearly 500 million people are affected by 
water stress or serious water scarcity. Under current 
trends, two-thirds of the world’s population may be 
subject to moderate to high water stress by 2025. 
(9) Access to safe water and sanitation and im-
proved hygiene are significant factors in controlling 
the spread of disease in the developing world and 
positively affecting worker productivity and economic 
development. 
(10) Increasing access to safe water and sanita-
tion advances efforts toward other development ob-
jectives, such as fighting poverty and hunger, pro-
moting primary education and gender equality, re-
ducing child mortality, promoting environmental sta-
bility, improving the lives of slum dwellers, and 
strengthening national security. 
(11) Providing safe supplies of water and sani-
tation and hygiene improvements would save millions 
of lives by reducing the prevalence of water-borne 
diseases, water-based diseases, water-privation dis-
eases, and water-related vector diseases. 
(12) Because women and girls in developing 
countries are often the carriers of water, lack of ac-
cess to safe water and sanitation disproportionately
affects women and limits women’s opportunities at 
education, livelihood, and financial independence. 
(13) Every $1 invested in safe water and sani-
tation would yield an economic return of between $3 
and $34, depending on the region. 
(14) Developing sustainable financing mecha-
nisms, such as pooling mechanisms and revolving 
funds, is necessary for the long-term viability of im-
proved water and sanitation services. 
(15) The annual level of investment needed to 
meet the water and sanitation needs of developing 
countries far exceeds the amount of Official Develop-
ment Assistance (ODA) and spending by govern-
ments of developing countries, so facilitating and at-
tracting greater public and private investment is es-
sential. 
(16) Meeting the water and sanitation needs of 
the lowest-income developing countries will require 
an increase in the resources available as grants from 
donor countries. 
(17) The long-term sustainability of improved 
water and sanitation services can be advanced by 
promoting community level action and engagement 
with civil society.
(18) Target 10 of the United Nations Millen-
nium Development Goals is to reduce by half the 
proportion of people without sustainable access to 
safe drinking water by 2015. 
(19) The participants in the 2002 World Sum-
mit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannes-
burg, South Africa, including the United States, 
agreed to the Plan of Implementation of the World 
Summit on Sustainable Development which included 
an agreement to work to reduce by one-half ‘‘the 
proportion of people who are unable to reach or af-
ford safe drinking water,’’ and ‘‘the proportion of 
people without access to basic sanitation’’ by 2015. 
(20) At the World Summit on Sustainable De-
velopment, the United States announced the Water 
for the Poor Initiative, committing $970 million for 
fiscal years 2003 through 2005 to improve sustain-
able management of fresh water resources and accel-
erate and expand international efforts to achieve the 
goal of cutting in half by 2015 the proportion of 
people who are unable to reach or to afford safe 
drinking water. 
(21) United Nations General Assembly Resolu-
tion 58/217 (February 9, 2004) proclaimed ‘‘the pe-
riod from 2005 to 2015 the International Decade for
Action, ‘Water for Life’, to commence on World 
Water Day, 22 March 2005’’ for the purpose of in-
creasing the focus of the international community on 
water-related issues at all levels and on the imple-
mentation of water-related programs and projects. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that—
(1) in order to make the most effective use of 
amounts of Official Development Assistance (ODA) 
for water and sanitation and avoid waste and dupli-
cation, the United States should seek to establish in-
novative 
international 
coordination 
mechanisms 
based on best practices in other development sectors; 
(2) the United States should greatly increase 
the amount of Official Development Assistance made 
available to carry out section 104D of the Foreign 
Assistance Act of 1961, as added by section 4(a) of 
this Act; 
(3) United States water and sanitation assist-
ance programs should reflect an appropriate balance 
of grants, loans, investment insurance, loan guaran-
tees, and other assistance to ensure affordability and 
equity in the provision of access to safe water and 
sanitation for the very poor;
(4) United States water and sanitation assist-
ance programs, to the extent possible, should sup-
port the poverty reduction strategies of recipient 
countries; 
(5) United States water and sanitation assist-
ance programs should promote community-based ap-
proaches in the provision of affordable and equitable 
access to safe water and sanitation, including the in-
volvement of civil society; and 
(6) protecting the supply and availability of safe 
water requires sound environmental management. 
SEC. 4. ASSISTANCE TO PROVIDE SAFE WATER AND SANI-
TATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Part I of the Foreign Assistance 
Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.) is amended by in-
serting after section 104C the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 104D. ASSISTANCE TO PROVIDE SAFE WATER AND 
SANITATION. 
‘‘(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of assistance author-
ized by this section are—
‘‘(1) to promote good health, economic develop-
ment, poverty reduction, women’s empowerment, and 
environmental sustainability by providing assistance 
to expand access to safe water and sanitation, pro-
moting integrated water resource management, and 
improving hygiene for people around the world; 
‘‘(2) to seek to reduce by one-half from the 
baseline year 1990 the proportion of people who are 
unable to reach or afford safe drinking water and 
the proportion of people without access to basic sani-
tation by 2015; 
‘‘(3) to focus water and sanitation assistance 
toward the countries and people with the greatest 
need; 
‘‘(4) to promote affordability and equity in the 
provision of access to safe water and sanitation for 
the very poor, women, and other vulnerable popu-
lations; 
‘‘(5) to promote long-term sustainability in the 
affordable and equitable provision of access to safe 
water and sanitation through the creation of innova-
tive financing mechanisms such as national revolving 
funds, and by strengthening the capacity of recipient 
governments and communities to formulate and im-
plement policies that expand access to safe water 
and sanitation in a sustainable fashion, including se-
curing loans and strategic planning; 
‘‘(6) to secure the greatest amount of resources 
possible, encourage private investment in water and
sanitation infrastructure and services, particularly in 
lower middle-income countries, without creating 
unsustainable debt for low-income countries or 
unaffordable water and sanitation costs for the very 
poor; and 
‘‘(7) to promote the capacity of recipient gov-
ernments to provide affordable, equitable, and sus-
tainable access to safe water and sanitation. 
‘‘(b) AUTHORIZATION.—To carry out the purposes of 
subsection (a), the President is authorized to furnish as-
sistance for programs in developing countries to provide 
affordable and equitable access to safe water and sanita-
tion. 
‘‘(c) ACTIVITIES SUPPORTED.—Assistance provided 
under subsection (b) shall, to the maximum extent prac-
ticable, be used to—
‘‘(1) expand affordable and equitable access to 
safe water and sanitation for underserved popu-
lations; 
‘‘(2) support the construction, maintenance, up-
keep, repair, and operation of water delivery and 
sanitation systems; 
‘‘(3) improve the safety and reliability of water 
supplies, including environmental management; and
‘‘(4) improve the institutional capacity of recipi-
ent governments, including capacity-building pro-
grams for improved water resource management. 
‘‘(d) LOCAL CURRENCY.—The President may use 
payments made in local currencies under an agreement 
made under title I of the Agricultural Trade Development 
and Assistance Act of 1954 (7 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) to 
provide assistance under this section, including assistance 
for activities related to drilling or maintaining wells.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 104(c) of 
the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act 
of 1954 (7 U.S.C. 1704(c)) is amended by adding at the 
end the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(9) SAFE
WATER.—To provide assistance 
under section 104D of the Foreign Assistance Act of 
1961 to promote good health, economic development, 
poverty reduction, women’s empowerment, and envi-
ronmental sustainability by improving the safety of 
water supplies, including programs related to drilling 
or maintaining wells.’’. 
SEC. 5. SAFE WATER AND SANITATION STRATEGY. 
(a) STRATEGY.—The Administrator of the United 
States Agency for International Development, in consulta-
tion with the heads of other appropriate Federal depart-
ments and agencies, international organizations, inter-
national financial institutions, recipient governments, 
United States and international nongovernmental organi-
zations, indigenous civil society, and other appropriate en-
tities, shall develop and implement a strategy to further 
the United States foreign assistance objective to provide 
affordable and equitable access to safe water and sanita-
tion in developing countries. 
(b) CONTENT.—The strategy required by subsection 
(a) shall include—
(1) an assessment of the activities that have 
been carried out, or that are planned to be carried 
out, by all appropriate Federal departments and 
agencies to improve affordable and equitable access 
to safe water and sanitation and hygiene in all coun-
tries that receive assistance from the United States 
Agency for International Development; 
(2) specific and measurable goals, benchmarks, 
and timetables to achieve the objective described in 
subsection (a); 
(3) an assessment of the level of resources that 
are needed each year to achieve the goals, bench-
marks, and timetables described in paragraph (2); 
(4) methods to mobilize and leverage the finan-
cial, technical, and managerial expertise of busi-
nesses, governments, nongovernmental organizations,
and civil society in the form of public-private alli-
ances; 
(5) methods to encourage reforms and increase 
the capacity of foreign governments to formulate 
and implement policies that expand access to safe 
water and sanitation in an affordable, equitable, and 
sustainable fashion, including securing loans and 
strategic planning; 
(6) methods to coordinate and integrate United 
States water and sanitation assistance programs 
with other United States development assistance 
programs to achieve the objective described in sub-
section (a); 
(7) methods to better coordinate United States 
water and sanitation assistance programs with pro-
grams of other donor countries and entities to 
achieve the objective described in subsection (a); 
(8) methods to take into account the different 
needs of countries with an absolute lack of resources 
to expand water and sanitation access and countries 
with the need to better allocate potentially sufficient 
existing resources and the different activities appro-
priate to each, as well as countries with existing 
markets for investment in water and sanitation and
countries without existing markets for investment in 
water and sanitation; and 
(9) methods to take into account the need for 
an appropriate balance of grants, loans, investment 
insurance, loan guarantees, and other assistance to 
ensure affordability and equity in the provision of 
access to safe water and sanitation for the very poor. 
(c) REPORTS.—
(1) INITIAL REPORT.—Not later than 180 days 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Ad-
ministrator of the United States Agency for Inter-
national Development shall submit to the appro-
priate congressional committees a report that de-
scribes the strategy required by subsection (a). 
(2) SUBSEQUENT
REPORTS.—Not less than 
once every year after the submission of the initial re-
port under paragraph (1) until 2015, the Adminis-
trator shall submit to the appropriate congressional 
committees a report on the status of the implemen-
tation of the strategy, progress made in achieving 
the objective described in subsection (a), and any 
changes to the strategy since the date of the submis-
sion of the last report. 
(3) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 
‘‘appropriate congressional committees’’ means—
(A) the Committee on International Rela-
tions and the Committee on Appropriations of 
the House of Representatives; and 
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 
and the Committee on Appropriations of the 
Senate. 
SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be appro-
priated for fiscal year 2006 and each subsequent fiscal 
year such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act 
and the amendments made by this Act. 
(b) OTHER AMOUNTS.—Amounts appropriated pur-
suant to the authorization of appropriations in subsection 
(a) shall be in addition to the amounts otherwise available 
to carry out this Act and the amendments made by this 
Act. 
(c) AVAILABILITY.—Amounts appropriated pursuant 
to the authorization of appropriations under section (a) 
are authorized to remain available until expended.
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