Water Papers

180 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16997

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

Now showing 1 - 10 of 15

Wastewater: From Waste to Resource - The Case of Santiago, Chile

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-09-26) World Bank Group

A set of case studies was prepared as part of the World Bank's Water Global Practice initiative "Wastewater: from waste to resource" to document existing experiences in the water sector on the topic. The case studies highlight innovative financing and contractual arrangements, innovative regulations and legislation and innovative project designs that promote integrated planning, resource recovery and that enhance the financial and environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment plants. This case study documents Santiago, Chile.
Vietnam: Toward a Safe, Clean, and Resilient Water System

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-05-01) World Bank Group

Prudent economic policies, combined with the enabling conditions created by a high endowment of water, have transformed Vietnam from a low income to a middle-income country within two decades. Though growth has produced vast benefits, it has also placed unrelenting pressures on water resources, which in turn lead to economic stresses. This report assesses how secure Vietnam’s water resources are and its economic implications and focuses on reducing the threats of “too little, too much, and too dirty.” Specifically, the report focuses on increasing water productivity in irrigated agriculture, water security and services for settlements, and on how Vietnam manages water quality and pollution issues, as well as climate change adaptation, disaster risks, and risks from infrastructure gaps and vulnerabilities. Recognizing that water governance is fundamental in addressing Vietnam’s water challenges, this report analyzes the current governance of the water sector to inform the development of strategies, provide an integrated view of challenges, and identify the most fundamental shifts needed to achieve national water security. Going forward, greater emphasis will have to be given to policy enforcement and to the incentives needed to assure greater compliance. The solutions suggested by this analysis are clustered around seven recommendations. This report was developed in close cooperation with the Government of Vietnam.
Assessment of Groundwater Challenges and Opportunities in Support of Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-08-01) World Bank Group

The report confirms that groundwater, if managed sustainably, can be an important development resource across the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region. The report presents data related to groundwater resource characteristics and highlights the opportunities and challenges presented in promoting sustainable and resilient groundwater development in the region. Groundwater has significant potential to support human and economic development in SSA, as it has done in other global regions. The report recommends investment in expanding groundwater development as an integral component of national water resources strategy for countries in SSA. Investment in groundwater can be financially viable and a wise policy option to support socioeconomic development if safeguards specific to groundwater are incorporated into investmentprograms. The expansion should be designed within a sustainable framework responsive to thespecial social and cultural and economic features of groundwater resources, compounded bytheir special hydrological, environmental and engineering dimensions to guide sustainabledevelopment of this important component of water resources.
Rapid Review of Water Knowledge for Pacific Small Islands Developing States

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06) World Bank Group

The rapid review confirms that Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are socially, culturally, and environmentally diverse, with some features in common, and which collectively make them unique to other regions of the world: Small island countries have uniquely fragile water resources due to their small size, lack of natural storage, competing land use, and vulnerability to natural and anthropogenic hazards, including drought, cyclones, and urban pollution (with between 0.5 percent to 6.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) being lost annually to disasters). Rurally dominated populations are widely dispersed geographically as many small communities, while most capital cities include significant informal settlement populations and are subject to rapid urbanization (a more than 3 percent yearly increase in urban population growth in most Melanesian countries is projected between 2015 and 2020) (Mycoo and Donovan 2017).
Timor-Leste Water Sector Assessment and Roadmap

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03-01) World Bank Group

Despite significant progress since gaining independence in 2002, Timor-Leste’s economy is still struggling with declining oil revenues and slowing economic growth, while access to improved basic services is still low and vulnerability to natural disasters remain high. In that context, strategic investments in the water sector and addressing water management is crucial to meet national and international development commitments and to stimulate economic growth. Potential for the development of the water resources exists in Timor-Leste, although it is constrained by limited data as well as by the institutional capacity to implement integrated water resources management (IWRM) solutions. Irrigation scheme rehabilitation has been driven by a target of self-sufficiency in food production but recent studies point to alternatives and more economically viable models for achieving this policy target. For water supply and sanitation, Timor-Leste met its millennium development goal (MDG) water and sanitation targets for urban areas, but missed its MDG target for rural areas. Progress has been made, although the sustainability of services remains a challenge. Investing in the water sector will have broad and significant benefits to the economy, community, and the environment in Timor-Leste.
Mainstreaming the Use of Remote Sensing Data and Applications in Operational Contexts

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-01-31) World Bank Group

This report presents the activities and outcomes to date of the global initiative on remote sensing for water resources management phase two. The Initiative was conceived to help mainstream the use of beneficial remote sensing applications in operational projects of the Bank, as well as to facilitate the adoption of remote sensing applications in World Bank client countries. By bridging the gap between the supply of remote sensing data and the needs from the Bank’s operational projects, Earth Observations can better inform client country agencies by improving monitoring and predictive capabilities and supporting better water-related operations. This report is addressed to technical staff in national water agencies, project leads from development and financing institutions, and water practitioners in general. The goal of the report is to present insights from a range of innovative remote sensing applications developed within the Remote Sensing Initiative, to help address specific water resources management challenges. The results presented here include constraints identified in the adoption of remote sensing, the approaches adopted to make applications functional in different contexts, the project applications themselves, insights on their sustainability, and ways forward. These applications can be replicated, up-scaled, and adapted in many other contexts to address similar challenges. We hope the information contained in this report will help country agencies and project teams in integrating the use of remote sensing in their water resources management practices, as well as in project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
Watershed: A New Era of Water Governance in China — Synthesis Report

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018) World Bank Group

This report represents a synthesis of joint research conducted by the Development Research Center of the State Council of the People's Republic of China (DRC) and the World Bank. Building on the track record of research collaboration between the World Bank and the DRC on issues such as urbanization, the objective of the study is to provide Chinese policy makers with detailed institutional and policy options to support water security in the country. This study fills a critical gap highlighted in the World Bank 2013 China Country Water Resources Assistance Strategy by proposing legal, technical, and institutional changes to the current framework for water resource management. A new water governance approach is recommended that aims to balance economic growth with increasing water demand under conditions of water scarcity. By closely examining key water management issues in the context of China's rapid development, the study also aims to provide lessons relevant to other low- and middle-income countries facing similar water-related challenges. The report identifies five priority areas for reform: 1) Enhance the legislative foundation for water governance; 2) Strengthen national and basin-level water governance; 3) Improve and optimize economic policy instruments; 4) Strengthen adaptive capacity to climate and environmental change; and 5) Improve data collection and information-sharing.
Managing Urban Water Scarcity in Morocco

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-11) World Bank Group

Important challenges such as population growth, urbanization, economic expansion and climate changeare looming over urban water security in Morocco. While urban water demand is expected to rise by 60 percent to 100 percent in most large cities by 2050, climate projections suggest reduced precipitation and a sharp decline in water resources availability. Morocco is expected to enter a situation of extreme water stress in less than 25 years. The Water Law 36-15 recognizes these risks and provides the relevant policies, institutions, regulations, mechanisms and procedures for integrated water resources management and created the necessary tools for its implementation. The Law emphasizes the need for integrated, decentralized, participative management of water, and recognizes the importance of developing planning mechanisms to address water scarcity. Institutions have been set up at all levels of government and rules are in place to involve civil society and the private sector in water management.
Sustainability Assessment of Rural Water Service Delivery Models: Findings of a Multi-Country Review

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-08) World Bank Group

With 2.1 billion people – mostly in rural areas – lacking safely managed drinking water and reported low rural water supply functionality rates, the Sustainable Development Goals pose a triple challenge: to reach unserved mostly rural population groups, to raise service levels, and to sustain existing and future services. This assessment uses a multi-country case study approach to identify good practices and challenges toward building sector capacity and strengthening sustainable service delivery models for rural areas. Recognizing the limitations of the Demand Responsive Approach, the emergence of various management models, the identified need for ongoing support to rural service providers, and the critical role of enabling institutions and policies beyond the community-level, the added value of this assessment lies in: i)the development of a comprehensive analytical framework that can be used to analyze and operationalize a more sustainable service delivery approach for rural water supply; ii) the rich set of cases and good practices from the 16 countries informing the global body of "knowledge in implementation," and iii) the formulation of recommendations and policy directions to improve the sustainability of services depending on sector development stage. Policy recommendations are centered around five areas: institutional capacity, financing, asset management, water resources management, and monitoring and regulatory oversight.
Climate Resilience in Africa: The Role of Cooperation around Transboundary Waters

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-06-27) World Bank Group

Addressing water-challenges is central to building climate resilience. In Africa, all major waters are transboundary making cooperation on international waters critically important to building climate resilience. Regional-national coordination is needed if the full range of options for building resilience is to be considered. Furthermore, experience shows that cooperative action can outweigh transaction costs, bring about efficiency gains, and change behavior of cooperating countries to be more future-oriented, leading to an expansion of potential resilience benefits in the longer term. This report draws on a substantial body of empirical evidence from five major basins in Africa - including the Nile, Zambezi, Limpopo, Lake Chad, Niger basins - to support the critical role of transboundary cooperation on water resources management to building systemic resilience to climate change in Africa.