Water Papers
180 items available
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Water Papers are produced by the Water Global Practice, taking up the work of the predecessor Water Unit, Transport, Water and ICT Department, Sustainable Development Vice Presidency.
Items in this collection
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Publication
Reform and Finance for the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-08)Since 2016 the World Bank has explored a wide range of country experiences in delivering better water supply and sanitation services. The analyses led to publication of three new global frameworks for designing water reforms: Policy, Institutional, and Regulatory Incentives, which looks at the broader sector enabling environment; Water Utility Turnaround Framework, which looks at utility-level reforms; and Maximizing Finance for Development, which looks at shifting the financing paradigm to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. The three frameworks—individually and as a compendium—set forth the key principles of a more holistic approach to reform that diverges from the traditional focus on infrastructure economics to a deeper understanding of the behavior of and between sector institutions and of the people within those institutions. Each country-specific reform path will gradually bring the sector to higher degrees of maturity with a strong focus on improving financial sustainability. This summary note integrates the three lines of work—utility reform, sector reform, and sector finance—for readers to understand the critical links between the three spheres. New contributions of this note are a Maturity Matrix for assessing where a country is in its reform process and where it wants to go and a Maturity Ladder that identifies typical actions to move from one stage of maturity to the next. Tools and references are also provided to help governments start on their reform path. -
Publication
Regulation of Water Supply and Sanitation in Bank Client Countries: A Fresh Look
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-11)This discussion paper supplements the 2018 World Bank Global Study on Aligning Institutions and Incentives for Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS), which promotes holistic approaches in shaping policies, institutions, and regulation. The paper examines how lower-, lower-middle-, and middle-income countries (LMICs) could implement more effective regulation to deliver sustainable WSS outcomes by considering political, legal, and institutional realities. Rather than importing “best practice” models, experience has emphasized the importance of developing “best fit” regulatory frameworks aligned with policy and institutional frameworks of LMICs. To this end, this discussion paper provides an overview of three regulatory aspects—objectives, forms, and functions—to support practitioners as they consider their own regulatory reform options. It discusses the objectives of water sector regulation in LMICs, types of regulatory arrangements and structures that are being used in LMICs, and instruments and methods that regulators in LMICs use to implement their mandated functions and ends with suggestions on where the WSS community goes from here to better understand the preconditions for effective regulation. This paper does not offer definitive conclusions but rather provides suggestions on the way forward through a phased approach to regulatory reform. Importantly, it sheds light on issues that warrant further investigation to determine the future of WSS regulation in LMICs. -
Publication
Water Supply in a War Zone: A Preliminary Analysis of Two Urban Water Tanker Supply Systems in the Republic of Yemen
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-07)A combination of poverty, water scarcity, armed conflict, and warfare has produced serious challenges for both water supply and sanitation in Yemen. Although the tanker truck system plays a critical role in filling this gap, it raises serious questions with respect to affordability, health, environment, and water resources management. Because active conflict makes parts of the country remain inaccessible, little recent data are available on the state of the country’s water supply and sanitation systems. This discussion paper presents assessments of basic features of urban water supply systems in Sana’a and Aden, a detailed profile of the tanker truck service structure, including supply chain mapping, value chain analysis, and an assessment of changes to the sector since the war began. It also covers institutional support structure for the water sector, well-to-consumer supply chain, water quality, well operations, tanker trucks water delivery services, and household water demand. The analysis culminates in recommendations of interventions urgently needed to improve service delivery in Yemen’s two largest cities. -
Publication
Aligning Institutions and Incentives for Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Services
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-05)The objective of this study is to analyze how integrated policy, institutional, and regulatory interventions (institutional interventions in brief) can help align incentives for more sustainable water supply and sanitation (WSS) service delivery. The context for the study is the enhanced global concern about the sustainability of attempts to increase access to, and improve the quality of, WSS services, as exemplified in the sustainable development goals. Aligning institutional interventions refers to harmonization among the objectives for the sector, agreed principles established through political and social processes, and the organizations and mechanisms that implement actions based on such objectives and principles. This report focuses on the formal policy, institutional, and regulatory interventions available to and or prevalent in the water sector, recognizing the critical importance of the informal conventions that will be key factors in the success of any incentive regime. Previous global initiatives offered a range of promising technical solutions that often proved to be unsustainable. New thinking that draws not only infrastructure economics but also on the understanding of political, behavioral, and institutional economics is needed. This new thinking must be grounded within the differing contextual realities of countries globally and in lessons learned from what has or has not worked with regards to achieving specific objectives. -
Publication
Status of Water Sector Regulation in the Middle East and North Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-06-27)As the World Bank and partners aim to support governments in the Middle East and North Africa address the challenges that confront the water and sanitation sector, the development of an effective regulatory framework is seen as increasingly salient. In order to have impact in this space, some basic information is needed. The objective of this study is to collect information through a regulatory lens and present it to serve as part of the foundation for sector reviews and operations. It is not the objective of this study to analyze or critique the performance of water and sanitation services or the effectiveness of regulation in each country or to make recommendations. Thus the approach is positive rather than normative. The report is part of a wider World Bank initiative to provide government officials and other stakeholders including civil society, service providers, potential financiers, and development practitioners with the resources to better understand current conditions and consider approaches to policies, institutions and regulation that can best incentivize the delivery of sustainable services. The report discusses the different approaches in implementing regulatory functions specific to economic regulation and highlights aspects of the operating environment particular to each country context including sector institutional roles and responsibilities, tariff formulation processes, private sector participation and public-private partnerships, and the role of citizen engagement in sector regulation. This desk study is a first step intended to provide some basic information on selected countries that will serve as a foundation for determining where further support in the area of regulatory reform might be best concentrated. The authors review the status of regulatory institutions and practices in five MENA countries which were chosen to include different historic and legal frameworks and fragile/conflict states as well as those that are attempting broader sector reform.