access, but on reforming the sector assuming that reforms such as the introduction of "full cost recovery" and the commercialisation of water services would make the sector viable and sustainable (NWP, 1994). Emphasis in the policy statements has been on treating water as an "economic good" and realizing its value through the market (see NWP, 1994: #2.2.7). Apparently, the policy mood in the country was largely following the growing emphasis of the economic value of water that dominated the global water debate during the early 1990s following on the Dublin and Rio summits (see Sections 4.1.2.3) Therefore, so far, not much has been achieved in terms of increasing access to water over this period especially for the poor sections of society. However, the reforms initiated during this period form the basis on which current efforts to increase access to water can be built. Both the Transitional National Development Plan of 2003 -2005 and the Fifth National Development Plan (2006-2011) are building on this policy framework.
The deteriorating economic performance as indicated by the shortage of foreign currency, the growing balance of payments deficit and the decline in investments, particularly low fixed capital formation, presented further challenges to the development agenda. The cumulative effect of all these challenges has been that, in the long run, even the small gains made during the boom time have been eroded by the poor performance of the economy in later periods.
From the above development strategies outlined, a number of major development challenges seem to surface. These include:
• Lack of continuity between development plans
• Implementation of programmes outside the development plans(failure to stick to plans)
• Divergence of between policy and programmes implemented
• Unintegration of strategies
• Absence of programmes that flesh-out the implementation of outlined policies
These challenges became even more pronounced during the hijacked period when the state was actually supposed to reduce its participation in the economy as one of the major reform recommendations of the 1980s and 1990s. The direct consequence of this has been the reduction of the capacity of the state to even implement the programme that the reforms themselves entailed. In what has come to be known as the 'paradox of orthodox development policy' (Gyimah-Boadi and de Walle Nicolas, 1996), the discrepancy inherent in asking the state to implement reform programmes when it is being asked to scale down from commanding heights is evident.
In relation to access to water, there are a number of observations to note from these development challenges:
First, it is interesting to note that from the time of independence, access to water has not been treated as a basic human right. This is in spite of the socialist/humanist political philosophy (humanism for instance) adopted by the Kaunda government, and also the fact that socioeconomic rights received backing from the then 'second' and 'third' world governments (Bedjaoui, 1991b). Access to water was first mentioned as a human right (though not a justiciable one) in the 1996 amended Constitution, at the time when the emphasis was on treating water as an economic, rather than a public good. Chapter Four discusses these issues in more detail.
Second, the restructuring programme embarked on since the early 1980s seem to have further undermined the state's capacity to plan and implement development programmes. This has had serious consequences for the water supply and sanitation (WSS) sub-sector mainly because maintenance and
development of WSS requires long term planning and the ability to implement policy consistently. As noted in Chapters Five and Six, even cases where the policy is clear, there are no concrete programmes to implement the policy—brilliant policy statements exist only on paper. For instance, the Peri-urban
Water Supply and Sanitation Strategy approved in 2000 has not been implemented in any significant way after six years. The apparent disarray of systems seems to arise from the incapacity to plan and implement plans. This has serious consequences for RBA which relies much on the ability to formulate strategy and implement them over time as illustrated in Chapter Three.
Third, the persistent economic contraction that is evident since the mid 1970s has had negative impact on the situation of access to water. Because of its weak political clout, provision of water services has been one of the 'first victims' of the shrinking development resources during the time of economic decline. This is evident from the resource allocations to the sector, and Chapter Five discusses this challenge in more detail.
Fourth, the growing emphasis on water as an economic good as opposed to bing a public good during the 1990s has had serious consequences especially on the levels of access to water among the poor sections of the Zambia society. The policy of commercialization, in particular, through which efforts to realize the economic value of water have, and are being advanced, has resulted in unbalanced improvements which have left poorer strata of society, like peri-urban areas, largely ignored. Chapters Five and Six present some of the evidence of the skewed impact of commercialisation.