Lea, David --- "Book Review - Water: A Report on the Provision of Water and Sanitation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities" [1994] AboriginalLawB 44; (1994) 3(69) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 14

• Book Review-Water: A Report On The Provision Of Water And Sanitation To Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Communities

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Book Review -

Water: A Report on the Provision of Water and Sanitation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities

Irene Moss, Federal Race Discrimination Commissioner

AGPS, Canberra, 1994

pp487

Reviewed by Professor David Lea

Australians cannot escape the reality that most Aboriginal people in remote communities live in appalling conditions and do not have access to basic facilities and services considered the elementary human rights of most Australians. However, in spite of newsworthy events such as Justice Einfeld's visit to Toomelah, Senator Richardson's visit to some NT communities and Brendan Nelson's recent visits to Aboriginal settlements and statements to the Australian Medical Association and the media, non-Aboriginal Australia cannot accept that forms of development and service provision appropriate for "mainstream" society may well promote degradation and social pathologies in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Indeed often government's well meaning notions of self-government, consultation and equity are value loaded, ethnocentric and assimilationist.

Governments react with money-driven control-oriented projects and programs that vest power with increasingly distant, higher authorities who think in western and sectoral terms. The legislative instruments (including the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) itself which is focused on individual rights rather than community rights) and the bureaucractic processes adopted have led service providers to the view that all people should receive the same services irrespective of race.

This study, based on four years' work, is an holistic approach to water and sanitation by the former Federal Race Discrimination Commissioner. It has major inputs by Dr Bruce Walker of the Centre for Appropriate Technology in Alice Springs. It is an enlightened, thoughtful and careful work by thinking and observant engineers and bureaucrats who have a good understanding of available technologies and bureaucratic procedures as well as communities and their problems.

In trying to identify the underlying factors that have worked against communities getting adequate services, it links human rights, technology, service provision, access and equity, problems of accountability and the need for local control, block grants and self-determination neatly and logically. It identifies policies and processes currently in place and the barriers blocking justice and change: these include a sectoral approach to planning and implementation; urban and technological biases; inability to understand indigenous cultures; and an inability to consult pet alone to negotiate).

The Report and its findings are based on detailed case studies of ten diverse communities around Australia. It is accompanied by A Guide to the Water Report which is a brief, succinct 36 page summary.

However, it is necessary to work through the 174 pages of the main report and the 250 pages of the detailed case studies of Punmu, Coonana, Yalata, Oak Valley, MpweringeArnapipe, Dareton, Tingha, Doomadgee, Boigu Island and Coconut Island to get the full flavour of the report and its many messages.

Unfortunately the first 100 pages set the scene in a rather long-winded and ill-organised way. They explain the origins of the study and discuss the problems arising from isolation, inappropriate equipment and frequent breakdowns; the erosion of value systems essential to living in remote areas; the nexus between water supply and health; the problems of seeing water as an economic good rather than a basic human right; the problems of experts with their reductionist thinking and their tendency to use Aboriginal settlements for experiments; the significance of non-Aboriginal Australia not recognising the unpalatable facts of the past (especially dispossession and separation from traditional lands and water) and failing to redress the effects of this history.

Chapter six provides an excellent summary of Burton's book, American Indian Water Rights and the Limits of Law, and makes some worthwhile international comparisons especially about the failure of aid givers to understand the cultural context of the changes they are trying to bring about and the failure to raise awareness, cooperate, educate and participate with local people.

The Report comes alive at Chapter 8 which provides an overview of the case studies. Here the reader is made aware of the differences within and between communities and the vast range of problems that cannot be addressed by standardised programs and practices. The remaining four substantive chapters analyse the results, draw cogent conclusions and make some useful recommendations. Two points are critical. First the provision of water involves social and political issues and is not just a problem needing a technological solution: secondly, Aboriginal and Islander people have to be involved in making choices and finding solutions that are culturally appropriate. Mainstreaming, or the imposition of standards, values and conditions not related to the development context of a community is simply unethical and a denial of rights.

There is a world of difference between consciously giving someone sub-standard treatment and allowing people the opportunity to set their own standards relevant to the outcomes that they wish to achieve within their own communities. It is analogous to the argument ... that the emphasis should be on equity of outcome rather than literal equality of input.(p108)

Institutional racism is illustrated by an Australian society that says the provision of housing, sewerage and water supplies (normally viewed as an investment in urban Australia) are costs borne by the wider society to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The Report is clear that technologies and engineering standards are not value free or benign.

The success of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program strategies and the process of reconciliation depends to a large extent on the ability of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to control the technical aspects of their lives and to respond in their own time and their own way to the problems that confront them. Without this knowledge and control, dependency will persist.(p144)

There is clearly a need to establish a human resource base at the same time as infrastructure. Apart from training, the report suggests a check-list to provide guidance for a consultant or service provider to ensure informed consent is obtained. (pp157-158) Numerous questions are asked under the general headings: What is the problem? How have I explained it? How did they explain it? Did I outline the cost and recurrent costs of various options? Do I know what resources are available? What other activities are ocurring in the community? What else does the community want out of this? Significantly a similar check-list is designed for Aborigines or Islanders to determine their understanding of proposals being advanced. Does the consultant appear to appreciate the values underlying our lifestyle? Are we doing this because there is money in budget or because this is important? Have we made sure everybody in the community has been consulted and understands what's going on? Do the recommendations provide increased control, employment and opportunity for community people? How will we keep this solution going in 3, 5 or 10 years time?

The substantive part of the Report concludes with seven recommendations. These are:

(1) that the Government recognise that community control, community involvement, self-determination are vital for service delivery and that community control be transferred by block funding to local or regional bodies which would include adequate monies to cope with increased responsibilities and administrative loads;
(2) that the Government actively promote a broader community understanding of equity and equality based on recognition of differences;
(3) that the Federal Government prepare a national statement of Indigenous Peoples' Rights;
(4) that ATSIC continue to address the means by which Aboriginal and Islander communities receive and respond to scientific and technical advice (by insisting that a code of ethics, negotiation protocols and a record of consultation be maintained as a contractual obligation) and that independent community-controlled review of options prior to endorsement of projects, consultants and policies be made available;
(5) that peak Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups consider the implications of the prevailing technology-led control-oriented paradigm in terms of its appropriateness for long-term sustainable development;
(6) that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner determine if changes or augmentation of Government policies and programs are required to give effect to issues of standards, values, equality and self-determination identified in this Report; and
(7) that the Race Discrimination Commissioner review progress made in the wake of this Report in the light of the recommendations, the Government's response, and the state of water and sanitation services in the ten case studies.

I have some quibbles about poor editing and sloppy writing but this is an important book and well worth careful study by the technologists and the service providers, community people and bureaucrats. The issues raised in relation to water and sanitation pervade all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and highlight the need for a new, culturally sensitive and appropriate response. It is made obvious that self-determination, block grants, local and regional agreements are not just culturally and politically desirable, they are fundamental to a just, sustainable, and effective way of addressing community problems that are an affront to basic human rights.