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.
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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
Nutrition-Sensitive Irrigation and Water Management
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-08)This document summarizes evidence and guidance on project design and results framework indicators for nutrition-sensitive irrigation and water management investments for which improving nutrition in vulnerable populations is a specific objective of the project. Drawing on the current body of evidence on the links between irrigation, water management, and nutrition through the pathways of production, income, women’s empowerment, and water and hygiene, the report describes eight nutrition-sensitive approaches for achieving greater impacts on early child nutrition. Results framework indicators are proposed to support monitoring and evaluation of nutrition-sensitive investments in water management and irrigation. -
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
Dividing the Water, Sharing the Benefits: Lessons from Rural-to-Urban Water Reallocation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06)Rural regions are often seen as key sources of urban water supply, creating pressure for reallocation and potential hotspots of competition for water between cities and agriculture. How effective and equitable is reallocation from rural to urban regions, and what have we learned from the global experience? This synthesis report examines the drivers, processes, politics, and outcomes of reallocation based on a review of the literature and insights from four in-depth case studies where governments have reallocated relatively large volumes of water from rural to urban regions: Melbourne, Australia; Mokopane, South Africa; Monterrey, Mexico; and São Paulo, Brazil. The findings suggest that water reallocation can play an important role in regional development. However, reallocation projects have also been controversial because of distributional conflicts regarding who wins and loses. The concept of benefit sharing, long applied to transboundary river basin management, offers a framework for designing effective and equitable reallocation processes, shifting the focus from dividing the water to sharing the benefits among rural and urban regions. The report identifies seven key lessons for realizing the potential of reallocation and limiting the risks. -
Publication
Governance in Irrigation and Drainage: Concepts, Cases, and Action-Oriented Approaches—A Practitioner’s Resource
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-05-01)Irrigated farming is central to meeting the world's food and fodder needs and will be even more important in delivering on food security and water sustainability development priorities in the future. High population growth, climate change, increasing socio-economic growth, and water stress are key drivers of change. Although irrigation covers only 6.5 percent of the total land used for agriculture, it supports production of forty percent of the world's food and fodder output, with a gross value of fifty-five percent of global agricultural produce. Improving irrigation performance is a priority strategy in addressing rural poverty and in mitigating climate -change impacts, especially for the most vulnerable. Investment in irrigation has seen renewed interest in the past decade, and irrigation and drainage (I and D) governance emerging as a key focus for improved performance. Institutional failures and poor irrigation performance have been blamed on low capacity, perverse incentives, misdirected policies, and weak implementation but these are only contributing factors. Investments in institutions of the past have aimed to fix the institutions, with a focus on form and on organizational structure. The central message of this resource book is that functions, processes, and related capabilities must be the priority focus of all irrigation institutional interventions. -
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.