Publication: Watershed Development in India : An Approach Evolving through Experience
Loading...
Published
2014-03
ISSN
Date
2014-06-11
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report analyses the experiences and lessons from three World Bank-Supported watershed development projects in the Indian states of Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.5 The primary reason for the analysis was to guide the development and execution of new watershed programs in India, including new Bank-supported state-level operations in Uttarakhand and Karnataka, and a proposed national project now under preparation. Accordingly, it was important to deepen the knowledge base about large-scale, community-led watershed development in order to share that knowledge with key stakeholders both inside and outside of the World Bank. Another important reason was the immediate and growing concern over water resources and their management in India and the question of how well watershed development programs internalize these concerns. A third impetus was the nexus between rural poverty and rainfed agriculture and the important role that watershed development programs are to fulfill in the development of sustainable rural livelihoods.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Symle, Jim; Lobo, Crispino; Milne, Grant; Williams, Melissa. 2014. Watershed Development in India : An Approach Evolving through Experience. Agriculture and environmental services
discussion paper;no. 4. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18636 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication A Review of Selected Hydrology Topics to Support Bank Operations(Washington, DC, 2010-06)The World Bank's 2004 Water Resources Sector Strategy focused on the need for both water resources management and development in dealing with growth and poverty alleviation. Planning and design of new hydraulic infrastructure for water supply and sanitation, food production, hydropower generation, flood protection, ecosystem restoration or other such purposes require dealing with all elements in the interaction among land, water, vegetation, human intervention and climate variability and change, with an emphasis on the end-user. They also require the simultaneous consideration of technical, economic, institutional (governance), political, financial, environmental and social factors, as called for in the Bank s 1993 Water Resources Management Policy. To provide high-level insight on the key hydrology issues involved, a group of world class experts gathered at a workshop held at World Bank Headquarters in November 2008. The workshop was organized by the Hydrology Expert Facility (HEF) of the Water Anchor. The presenters discussed advancements in key hydrologic topics that were selected for their relevance to Bank operations. The focus was on potential implications for the Bank s development assistance on water projects, programs and policies.Publication Republic of South Sudan : The Rapid Water Sector Needs Assessment and a Way Forward(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-01)The aim of the rapid assessment is to support the transition from emergency post conflict recovery to a development approach. The completion of the water, sanitation, and hygiene, or WASH strategic framework in 2011 was intended to mark the beginning of this transition in the water resources sector. Among other things, the transition involved the adjustment of policy and strategy and possibly a rethinking of approaches as the government shifts from primarily supply-driven emergency and recovery assistance to sustainable development. This assessment is based on a review of the typology of water uses in South Sudan (chapter three) including rain-fed and irrigated agriculture, livestock, fisheries, hydropower energy production, urban and rural domestic water supply and the environment; the government's water sector program priorities (chapter four); water sector institutional and policy environment (chapter five); and issues and lessons learned from the completed and ongoing activities since 2007. This assessment framework has provided useful insights and findings and outcomes that enabled the identification of programmatic priorities and related activities that the water sector agencies may undertake with the assistance from development partners in the short and medium term. Chapters six, seven, and eight present these findings in detail.Publication Grow in Concert with Nature : Sustaining East Asia's Water Resources through Green Water Defense(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012)As countries develop, the demand for water increases while water supply becomes less certain and is often not enough to meet demand. In general, pressures from both environment and human activities can increase the likelihood of water scarcity. Such pressures include increased socio-economic development and population growth, change in people's diets, competition for available water among different user sectors and growing climate variability. Climate change is likely to exacerbate the existing demand and supply stresses, particularly when more frequent and extreme droughts and floods, as well as rising sea level are becoming more evident. In temperate, sub-temperate regions, less rainfall and longer dry seasons are expected. In tropical areas, rainfall is predicted to be similar or greater in terms of annual average volumes, more intense and severe storms and seasonal droughts (IPCC, 2007). These pressures will test the effectiveness of water resource management systems in providing a consistent and secure water supply for all users, with minimum externalities. This study will assess advances in management practices, institutional and technological innovations for managing water scarcity sustainably under a changing climate. This study of 'sustaining East Asia's water resources through Green Water Defense (GWD) is a sub-study of the 'towards GWD in East Asia' study and is complemented by another sub-study 'green water defense for flood risk management in East Asia' that focuses on flood management in delta regions.Publication Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources and Adaptation in the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Sector in Nicaragua(2013-01)Climate change is at the top of the development agenda in Central America. This region, together with the Caribbean, is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change in Latin America. Climate change is manifesting itself through higher average temperatures and more frequent droughts that result in higher water stress, and through the rising frequency of extreme weather events such as tropical storms, hurricanes, floods and landslides, all of which pose significant challenges in the rural water supply and sanitation sector. The paper starts with a review of the historic data on temperature and precipitation trends in Central America and particularly at the regional level in Nicaragua. The data reveal a clear trend of the growing climate variability, increased water stress for crops, and greater frequency of extreme weather events. The rising intensity and frequency of ex-treme weather events is among the most critical risks to the region's development agenda, and they translate into high economic losses. This paper examines the impacts and implications of potential climate change on water resources in Nicaragua and makes key recommendations to integrate climate change and rural water supply and sanitation policies and programs in a way that increase resilience to current and future climate conditions.Publication Toward Integrated Water Resources Management in Armenia(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015)The proper management of water resources plays a key role in the socioeconomic development of Armenia. On average, Armenia has sufficient water resources. Taking into account all available water resources in the country, Armenia has sufficient resources to supply approximately 3,100 cubic meters per capita per year well above the typically cited Falkenmark water stress indicator of 1,700 cubic meters per capita per year. These water resources are not evenly divided in space and time with significant seasonal and annual variability in river runoff. In order to address temporal variations in river runoff, the country has built 87 dams with a total capacity of 1.4 billion cubic meters. Most of these dams are single purpose, mainly for irrigation. Armenia also has considerable groundwater resources, which play an important role in the overall water balance. About 96 percent of the water used for drinking purposes and about 40 percent of water abstracted in the country comes from groundwater. Irrigation remains the largest consumptive user.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.