Water Papers

2022, World Bank

Water security is a matter of increasing concern across the world and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is no exception. With rapidly growing demands for water and increasing variability due to climate change, ensuring water access to all users and mitigating water-related risks should be at the center of national and regional adaptation strategies. With nearly a third of the world's water resources, the LAC region's development has been inadvertently driven by water. This rich water endowment has allowed LAC to position itself as the world's largest net food-exporting region and greenest in terms of electricity production through hydropower. Water has played a fundamental role in reducing poverty, preserving LAC's natural wealth, and accelerating economic growth. More importantly, access to safe drinking water and sanitation services has contributed to improve the health and living conditions of millions of people. Despite this progress, there are urgent water sector challenges that threaten the region's sustainable development. Access to water and sanitation services is inequitable, with greater gaps in rural, indigenous, and peri-urban communities. In addition, water-related extremes such as floods and droughts are becoming more frequent and severe, having negative effects in lower-income communities. These gaps are more likely to be broadened by unsustainable water management practices, growing demands by competing water users, increasing pollution, and climate change impacts. In LAC, inadequate infrastructure results in a lack of storage and limited investment reduces the capacity of institutions to achieve integrated water resources management and improve service provision. The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) conducts research, convenes multi stakeholder dialogues, builds institutional capacity, and provides policy advice to water decision-makers. Focused on improving water governance, the authors aim to contribute to more prosperous and inclusive societies.

2020-10, World Bank

This case study assessed ongoing initiatives to address surface water pollution issues in Mexico, working in partnership with the Comision Nacional del Agua (CONAGUA), the national agency responsible for the administration of water resources and its management. Particular focus was placed on a pilot case study application of remote sensing techniques to detection of water-quality issues in the Valle de Bravo reservoir. This assessment will contribute to a better understanding of options for water-quality remote sensing capabilities and needs. It will assist in identifying appropriate remote sensing tools and devising an application strategy to support decision making regarding the targeting and monitoring of nutrient pollution prevention and mitigation measures.

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.

2019-02-14, World Bank

This study focuses on Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization (NGO), and its operations mostly in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, and to a lesser extent in Port-au-Prince. SOIL, through its container-based program known as EkoLakay, operates mainly in the eastern part of Cap-Haitien in low-income areas characterized by a high population density, irregular alley layout, and higher exposure to floods (compared to the rest of the city). SOIL provides full-cycle ecological sanitation, where excreta is treated and transformed into compost, benefiting agricultural projects and development. SOIL is the only service provider in Cap-Haitien (and in Haiti at large) able to manage a sanitation system that covers the whole sanitation service chain, and customers expressed satisfaction with the toilet technology. While affordability is a key issue for customers and non-customers, the user fee is unlikely to cover all costs of the sanitation service, which includes excreta treatment and transformation. SOIL intends to transfer implementation and scale-up of its CBS business models to the public and private sectors in Haiti, making replicability and scalability key for their business model. To meet its ambitious target number of customers in Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince, SOIL will need to continue to influence the institutional environment, along with other organizations and donors in the sector.

2021-09-02, World Bank

This case study is part of a series prepared by the World Bank’s Water Global Practice to highlight existing experiences in the water sector. The purpose of the series is to showcase one or more of the elements that can contribute toward a Water in Circular Economy and Resilience (WICER) system. This case focuses on the experience of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

2020-05, World Bank

Laguna del Sauce is a water supply reservoir located in the Department of Maldonado (Uruguay), approximately 15 kilometers west of Punta del Este and 100 kilometers east of Montevideo. This case study assessed ongoing initiatives to address surface water pollution issues in Uruguay, working in partnership with a team of government agencies charged with water resource management. This assessment will contribute to better understanding of options for water-quality remote sensing capabilities and needs. It will also assist the government of Uruguay in identifying appropriate remote sensing tools and devising an application strategy to provide information needed to support decision making regarding the targeting and monitoring of nutrient pollution prevention and mitigation measures.

2019-05, Groves, David G., Bonzanigo, Laura, Syme, James, Engle, Nathan L., Rodriguez Cabanillas, Ivan

Lima is the capital of and largest city in Peru, with an estimated population of about 10 million people. SEDAPAL, Lima’s water utility, provides water to most of the metropolitan region. While SEDAPAL is generally able to meet the current needs of its customers and respond effectively to most drought conditions that have been experienced in the past, it faces a number of challenges doing so in the future. A rapidly growing population and expanding city will likely increase demand. Currently available surface and groundwater supplies that SEDAPAL relies on are also just adequate to meet current needs. Changes in these supplies would challenge SEDAPAL’s ability to manage drought conditions. This study evaluates the performance of SEDAPAL’s current drought management plan against future droughts and proposes augmentations. This study takes a deeper look into the operation of the system, the different triggers, other possible augmentations than those related to increasing supply. The audience of this report includes SEDAPAL and stakeholders from Lima as well as other water managers and researchers interested in drought management planning methodologies and case studies. This study is novel, as it uses methods for Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty to explore uncertainty in near-term drought management conditions and identify drought management strategies robust to these uncertainties

2021-06-23, World Bank

This brief for policy makers is a summary of the main conclusions derived from the “Argentina: Valuing Water” report, a detailed and technical water security diagnostic, and is designed for decision makers beyond the water sector. Its main purpose is to make visible the importance of water, and the cost of existing water security gaps on Argentina’s economy, society and environment. The report further highlights the causes behind those water security gaps and identifies opportunities to close them and make the country more resilient to climate change or to other shocks such as the COVID-19, through a more sustainable, inclusive and efficient water management. The document assesses the water security situation today, evaluating the impacts of these water security gaps in the country’s GDP, and then proposes two future scenarios up to 2030: the first one is a “business as usual” scenario, where there are no changes in the way water is managed today, and where water security gaps perpetuate or amplify due to climate change and growing demands. The second “active scenario” is that one where a series of investments are proposed to close the existing gaps, and where, most importantly, a number of water governance reforms are recommended to complement such investments and to make them more sustainable. These reforms are also necessary to use public funds more efficiently, a priority measure in times of crisis.

2019-12-10, World Bank

SEDAPAR S.A. (Servicio de Aqua Potable y Alcantarillado de Arequipa) is one of the public service enterprises in Peru. It is a limited liability company owned by 8 provincial municipalities and 26 district municipalities in Arequipa Department. It provides water and sanitation services to the metropolitan area of Arequipa and a large part of the department. SEDAPAR serves over 1.1 million inhabitants through 280,000 connections. Coverage ratios are over 94 percent for water and over 80 percent for sanitation services. SEDAPAR is the second-largest utility in Peru in terms of population served—after Sedapal in Lima—and is the largest in terms of coverage area. Arequipa Department, at a size of 63,345 square kilometers (k

2019-02-14, World Bank

In the face of urbanization, alternative approaches are needed to deliver adequate and inclusive sanitation services across the full sanitation service chain. Container-based sanitation (CBS) consists of an end-to-end service—that is, one provided along the whole sanitation service chain—that collects excreta hygienically from toilets designed with sealable, removable containers and strives to ensure that the excreta is safely treated, disposed of, and reused. This report builds on four case studies (SOIL – Haiti, x-runner – Peru, Clean Team – Ghana, Sanergy – Kenya) to assess the role CBS can play in a portfolio of solutions for citywide inclusive sanitation (CWIS) services. The authors conclude that CBS approaches should be part of the CWIS portfolio of solutions, especially for poor urban populations for whom alternative on-site or sewer-based sanitation services might not be appropriate. Customer satisfaction with existing services is high and services provided by existing CBS providers are considered safe but have some areas for improvement. While the proportion of total CBS service costs covered by revenues is still small, CBS services are considered to be priced similarly to the main sanitation alternatives in their service areas. Recommendations include adopting a conducive policy and regulatory environment and exploring ways to ensure that CBS services are sustainably financed. The report also identifies areas for further analysis.