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
Doing More with Less: Smarter Subsidies for Water Supply and Sanitation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-08-28)This report explores how scarce public resources can be used most effectively to achieve universal delivery of water supply and sanitation services. It analyzes the prevalence and performance of subsidies in the sector, then guide policymakers on improving subsidy design and implementation to improve their efficacy and efficiency in attaining their objectives. -
Publication
Fintech for the Water Sector: Advancing Financial Inclusion for More Equitable Access to Water
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-03)For many low-income households in the developing world, incomes are highly variable and uncertain. High up-front costs combined with irregular incomes result in unequal access to water, sanitation, and irrigation. Households typically can, and should, cover the costs of accessing water resources, but they cannot do this without help. Financial inclusion can help households access water resources. Financial inclusion focuses on ensuring everyone has access to useful and affordable financial products and services, including transactions, payments, savings, credit, and insurance. The emerging field of financial technology (fintech) can help address barriers to financial inclusion in the water sector while potentially reducing or eliminating the need for subsidy. Fintech solutions already address some of the needs of developing-nation households—applications include payments and mobile money, pay-as-you-go (PAYG) models, insurance technology (insurtech), and virtual banks. This paper explores how fintech can support expansion of market-based solutions for water, sanitation, and irrigation, identifying several use cases where fintech is already being used to address financial inclusion and access to water. In addition to ways that fintech can help households access water supply and sanitation services, the paper also examines how fintech can help water utilities serve low-income customers more effectively and assist small-scale service providers in growing their businesses. -
Publication
Better Use of Capital to Deliver Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Services: Practical Examples and Suggested Next Steps
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-11)The costs of meeting the SDG WASH targets will be several times higher than investment levels during the MDG era (2000–15). The immense scale of the financing gap calls for innovative solutions. In addition to mobilizing more funding another approach is to deliver the needed infrastructure more efficiently and effectively and thus reduce the financing gap. Capital expenditure efficiency (CEE)—the efficient and effective use of capital—is less documented compared to operational efficiency. Although improving operating efficiency is frequently highlighted and readily evaluated, the scope for capital cost efficiencies is poorly understood, frequently overlooked, and difficult to evaluate, even though the scale of savings can be significant—in fact, capital and operating costs are equally important when considering full cost recovery. This study compiles case studies that show the "art of the possible" in CEE. The report is not encyclopedic—many more examples could surface from a comprehensive study. It also doesn’t quantify the savings possible through increasing CEE. However, almost all the examples show capital savings of 25 percent or more compared to traditional solutions. This alone this should give policy makers, donors, and utility managers pause for thought and encourage them to develop CEE in their sectors, projects, or utilities. A 25 percent improvement in CEE would allow existing investments to deliver a 33 percent increase in benefits. -
Publication
Enhancing the Enabling Environment to Promote Private Sector Participation in the Implementation of the Philippine Water Supply and Sanitation Master Plan
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06)The main objective of the discussion note is to inform dialogues among Government policy makers and other stakeholders on how to move forward with the critical water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector reforms in the Philippines, focusing on how private sector participation might be harnessed to help achieve the universal access to safe and sustainable water supply and sanitation services. The note aims to provide an initial analysis on: (i) current trends of private participation in the water sector, (ii) the liquidity of the commercial finance markets to support these activities, (iii) any current challenges or bottlenecks in financing the private sector (including issues relating to the enabling environment), and (iv) possible solutions to encourage effective investment into the sector. During the roundtable discussion, both the public and private sector providers confirmed that they would be willing to enter into less commercially viable service areas, provided there was substantial support from the government in the form of capital grants that would make the projects viable, and might even be able to leverage commercial finance. Hence, the discussion note proposed to: a) set up Project Preparation Facility, b) strengthen the government joint venture guidelines and PPP Act, and c) promote Blended Finance. -
Publication
Mainstreaming the Use of Remote Sensing Data and Applications in Operational Contexts
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-01-31)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. -
Publication
Sanitation and Water for All: How Can the Financing Gap Be Filled?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-03)For many countries still striving to provide their populations with basic access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, the initial years of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is an appropriate time to reflect on and reassess current arrangements to finance the WASH sector. The 2017 High-Level Meeting of Finance Ministers will be the first held since the launch of the SDGs and will provide an opportunity for collective discussion on the roadmap for financing the water, sanitation and hygiene components of SDG 6, the so-called water SDG. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development introduced a new level of ambition for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services, encouraging countries to aspire to even higher levels of service and thus greater health, economic, social, and environmental benefits. This discussion paper provides a framework for country-level discussion, setting out key considerations for countries as they undertake financial planning for efforts to meet the SDGs. This paper covers the following aspects:(i) Estimating the costs and benefits associated with the SDG targets for WASH; (ii) Using existing financial resources more effectively; (iii) Accessing new resources; and (iv) Taking action to close the SDG financing gap. -
Publication
Modernizing Weather, Water, and Climate Services: A Road Map for Bhutan
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-07-21)The main objective of this technical assistance paper is to provide recommendations to the Royal Government of Bhutan for modernizing its hydrometeorological services, including capacity strengthening for disasterrelated early warning systems (EWSs). The DHMS does not have a national hydromet services policy but is in the process of preparing a strategic document to guide its modernization and institutional reform process. This technical assistance paper contributes to this process and proposes a road map for transforming the DHMS into a modern service delivery agency. -
Publication
Capacity Development for Integrated Water Resources Development and Management in India
(Washington, DC, 2015-06-26)This paper's objective is to strengthen the capacity of various institutions in the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation for sustainable water resources management, and to develop training tools for innovative techniques for further dissemination to state agencies and other stakeholders.