Water Papers
183 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
Moldova: Water Security Diagnostic and Future Outlook
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11-18)Over the past two decades Moldova has achieved major development results: poverty more than halved between 2007 and 2014, and shared prosperity for the poorest households rose sharply. Yet Moldova’s growth model is volatile, unsustainable, and is losing strength. Water underpins much of Moldova’s ability to rekindle dynamism in its economy and to provide outcomes for the health and well-being of its people and environment. Yet gaps remain in understanding the country’s water resources endowments. This diagnostic suggests that in 2018 water availability is not a binding constraint to development. Even in the presence of future changes in demand, there are limited or manageable physical constraints to water security. Going beyond a focus on the water balance, this report assesses Moldova’s water security and identifies important water-related challenges that may hinder progress in economic and human development. Moldova’s water security is threatened by poor infrastructure and suboptimal institutional performance. Through an assessment of service delivery, water resources management and risk mitigation, and an analysis of institutional arrangements and sector expenditure data, this diagnostic establishes a set of policy recommendations on how water should be sustained and leveraged to support Moldova’s development. This report provides a new, comprehensive, and balanced view of water security in Moldova, highlighting the complex water issues that Moldova must tackle to improve its water security. It seeks to elevate water security as an issue critical for national development by providing stakeholders with a stocktaking and outlook on water-related risks, and opportunities in which water can contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction. -
Publication
Water in the Balance: The Economic Impacts of Climate Change and Water Scarcity in the Middle East
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-09-28)Innovations in water management and irrigated agriculture powered water-scarce Middle Eastern economies for millennia. However, as water becomes scarcer because of population growth and economic development, and even more erratic because of climate change, the region’s water security is coming under increasing threat. This report applies an economic model, the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) computable general equilibrium model, to assess the economic impacts of water scarcity for six Middle Eastern countries and also to examine how water-use efficiency improvements and trade can mitigate these impacts. A 20 percent reduction in water supply could decrease GDP by up to 10 percent, compared to 2016 levels. Furthermore, increased water scarcity could reduce labor demand by up to 12 percent and lead to significant land-use changes, including loss of beneficial hydrological services. The report emphasizes how the growing dependence on shared water resources reinforces the need to manage water across boundaries. The message is clear: unless new and transformative policies for sustainable, efficient and cooperative water management are promoted, water scarcity will negatively impact the region’s economic prospects and undermine its human and natural capital. -
Publication
Water and Nutrition: A Framework for Action
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-08)This framework for action was developed to support the inclusion of nutritional considerations in the design of water operations and to help formulate nutrition-enhancing water policy. Chronic undernutrition early in life can cause cognitive and physical impairments that prevent children from achieving their full potential and have lasting consequences on the human capital that is essential for economies of the future to be competitive. The authors present an integrated water and nutrition framework to aid in understanding the various ways that water impacts early child nutrition, drawing on the three dimensions of water security: water quantity, adequate supply of water resources; water quality, water that is free of contamination; and water accessibility, reliable availability to all people, economies, and ecosystems. Each of these in turn affects the underlying drivers of poor nutrition outcomes in children. Challenges associated with water-related conflict and water resources in the context of fragility cuts across each of the drivers of undernutrition. The framework complements guidance notes that describe the evidence of how water sector investments across irrigation, water management, and water supply and sanitation impact early child nutrition and summarize recommendations on how to design interventions for greater impact. -
Publication
Better Data, Better Results: Remote Sensing as a Tool for Monitoring Water Quality in Lake Toba, Indonesia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06-01)Lake Toba is a unique natural asset of global significance with a rich cultural heritage located in the North Sumatra Province of Indonesia. Located 904 meters above sea level and with a maximum depth of more than 500 meters, this 87-kilometer-long lake provides a wide range of economic and environmental goods and services for more than half a million people and 400 villages in the seven districts covered by the lake's 3,658 square kilometer catchment. However, sustaining the long-term economic and environmental value of Lake Toba depends on addressing the deterioration of water quality. This technical guidance note reports on the potential benefits of using remote sensing as part of an integrated strategy to improve the monitoring and management of water quality in Lake Toba. -
Publication
Vietnam: Toward a Safe, Clean, and Resilient Water System
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-05-01)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. -
Publication
Lesotho Water Security and Climate Change Assessment
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-08-18)The analysis looks specifically at the need to ensure continued development of water resources within Lesotho and aims to empower stakeholders to act with more confidence by demonstrating that the implementation strategies can provide benefits to water resources management over a broad range of possible future scenarios. The analysis quantifies a range of possible future conditions to demonstrate the benefits that can be realized over a broad range of possible future outcomes. This quantification is based on a water resource decision support model developed specifically for Lesotho, using the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) model which couples climate, hydrologic, and water management systems to facilitate an evaluation of the uncertainties and strategies of impacts on specified management metrics. The WEAP model was used to simulate the historic climate based on data from the national government archives and global datasets available in the public domain. These included 121 downscaled Global Climate Model (GCM) projections of future climate over two possible water demand future scenarios, for a total of 244 scenarios up to the year 2050.