Publication: Concessionary Financing Programs for the Water and Sanitation Sector in China
Loading...
Published
2009-12
ISSN
Date
2014-08-19
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
China's water and sanitation sector faces challenges from rapid urbanization and industrialization, urban diversification, large investment needs, water scarcity, water pollution, and ecological degradation. This policy note addresses 'concessionary finance.' It is intended to provide a briefing for Chinese government officials who formulate policies for the water and sanitation sector. This note is not intended to provide recommendations on which policies to adopt, but rather to facilitate understanding of the policy options, how to choose among them, and where and how various options have been used in practice. Good water and sanitation services are essential for economic growth, public health, and environmental protection. However, these services can be difficult to finance. When utilities do not have sufficient capital, they under-invest and this will adversely affect the quality of services the utilities provide. Many governments run targeted concessionary financing programs as a method of helping utilities raise the needed capital. International experience has shown that well designed concessionary financing programs can additionally be employed as incentives to successfully improve utility efficiency, sector governance, or both. This policy note draws on successful case studies from concessionary finance programs in other countries.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2009. Concessionary Financing Programs for the Water and Sanitation Sector in China. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19474 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 East Asia and the Pacific Region Urban Sanitation Review : Philippines Country Study(Washington, DC, 2013-12)This Philippines country study forms part of the East Asia and the Pacific region urban sanitation review that focuses on three of the emerging middle income countries of East Asia: Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam. The regional review aims to develop a strategic framework to help guide national urban sanitation programs and their implementation in these emerging middle income countries. This country study contributed to the regional review by providing important information on sector operations in the Philippines. The development of urban sanitation in the Philippines needs to be considered in the context of the different situations in Metro Manila and the other parts of the country. The case studies for some urban areas were prepared to see how sanitation operations are carried out in the Philippines and a consultative workshop was held on February 19, 2013 in Manila. The findings of the Philippines country study are briefly presented which complements the findings of the regional report.Publication Uganda Water Assistance Strategy(Washington, DC, 2011-06)Over the past 25 years, Uganda has experienced sustained economic growth, supported by a prudent macroeconomic framework and propelled by consistent policy reforms. Annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth averaged 7.4 percent in the 2000s, compared with 6.5 in the 1990s. Economic growth has enabled substantial poverty reduction, with the proportion of people living in poverty more than halving from 56 percent in the 1992 to 23.3 percent in 2009. However, welfare improvements have not been shared equally; there is increasing urban rural inequality and inequality between regions. Revitalizing economic growth and tackling persistent poverty will require addressing a number of challenges. These include alleviating infrastructure bottlenecks; increasing agricultural productivity; managing land, water and other natural resources; addressing demographic challenges; and confronting governance issues. The development and management of water resources is intimately linked to Uganda's continued development ambitions. Water can be both a positive force-providing productive input to agriculture, industry, energy and tourism, and sustaining human and environmental health-as well as a destructive one-to which the devastating consequences of floods and droughts can attest. The National Water Resources Assessment (NWRA) estimates that Uganda's total renewable water resources are about 43 million cubic meters (MCM), less than was estimated in the Ministry of Water and Environment's (MWE's) Sector Investment Plan (SIP) in 2009. About 13 percent of this is sustainable groundwater (5.67 MCM) and the balance is surface water (37.41 MCM). About one half of all districts in Uganda experience annual rainfall deficits-the difference between evapotranspiration and rainfall-ranging from slightly above zero to 400 mm. The frequency of rainfall anomalies below normal (or long-term annual average) is significantly greater than the frequency of rainfall anomalies higher than normal. The Uganda water Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) aims to assist the Government of Uganda (GoU) in identifying priority actions for building on successful outcomes, tackling remaining challenges, and exploiting opportunities in Uganda's water sector. The objective of the water CAS is to define the World Bank's strategic role in supporting GoU to better manage and develop its water resources. The recommendations of the water CAS are complementary to the World Bank Uganda Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) 2011-15 priorities for Uganda and consistent with the country's development objectives as defined in the National Development Plan (NDP) and water and related sector plans and strategies, which form the foundation of the World Bank Uganda CAS.Publication The World Bank's Assistance for Water Resources Management in China(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-04-27)China has an ancient tradition of hydraulic engineering but in the past half century the intensity of exploitation of water resources has accelerated as a result of population and economic growth. The three major issues for Chinese water management are water shortages, flood control and pollution. The World Commission on Dams noted that since 1949 the number of large dams in China had increased from 22 to 22,000, almost half the global total. China has over 80,000 reservoirs and 240,000 km of dikes. Most rivers and streams are now used for irrigation, power generation, transport, urban water supply or waste disposal, some for all of these purposes. The main constraints to integration of Water Resource Management, or WRM arise from the interaction of fairly objective needs for new institutions, incentives and procedures, on the one hand, and bureaucratic interests and political resistance to demand management on the other. China s water problems are not unique, involving a balancing act between economic growth and resource depletion, protection of the environment, health and other non-economic objectives, mediated by strong governments at both central and federal (provincial levels). This paper focuses on the role that the World Bank operations have played in changing WRM policy and strategy during the 1990s.Publication Water and Development : An Evaluation of World Bank Support, 1997-2007, Volume 2. Appendixes(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010)The amount of available water has been constant for millennia, but over time the planet has added 6 billion people. Water is essential to human life and enterprise, and the increasing strains on available water resources threaten the mission of institutions dedicated to economic development. The ultimate goal is to achieve a sustainable balance between the resources available and the societal requirement for water. In this evaluation the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) examines all the water-related projects financed by the World Bank between fiscal 1997 and the end of calendar 2007. Bank activities related to water are large, growing, and integrated. They include water resources management, water supply and sanitation, and activities related to agricultural water, industrial water, energy generation, and water in the environment. Through both lending and grants, the World Bank (the International Development Association and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or IBRD) has supported countries in many water-related sectors. This evaluation examines the full scope of that support over the period from fiscal 1997 to the end of calendar 2007. More than 30 background studies prepared for the evaluation have analyzed Bank lending by thematic area and by activity type. The evaluation is by definition retrospective, but it identifies changes that will be necessary going forward, including those related to strengthening country-level institutions and increasing financial sustainability.Publication The Future of Water in African Cities : Why Waste Water? Integrated Urban Water Management, Background Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-12)The primary objective of this report is to provide a coherent and comprehensive review on integrated urban water management (IUWM) approach to assist public authorities to identify and address the future challenges of urban water supply, sanitation and flood management in African cities. This report presents the existing and future challenges in Africa, the possible options for innovative technologies and approaches for their breakthrough and a way forward to achieve the objectives of IUWM. It highlights technical and institutional constraints of the IUWM in Africa. It presents the global and African best practices and trends in IUWM which are linked to urban development and which have very good lessons learnt that can be shared within and among the cities in Africa. The report consists of four chapters. Chapter two reviews the existing condition, future challenges and opportunities in Urban Water Sector (UWS) in Africa. The review covers the current situation of urban water systems and their management approaches; the major future change pressures (climate change, population growth and urbanization, deterioration of infrastructure systems) and their impacts on UWS; and opportunities for implementing the IUWM approach in Africa. Chapter three introduces the key concepts and conceptual framework of IUWM. The framework has been supplemented by appropriate technologies and innovative approaches of IUWM that will be suitable for cities in Africa. This chapter also presents the global experiences and best practices of IUWM that can be shared within the Africa cities. Chapter four presents case studies to demonstrate how the IUWM framework can be operationalized and to select the appropriate technologies and approaches as discussed in chapter 3 based on the different typologies of the cities and development stages in Africa. The typologies include an emerging town in Uganda (Masindi), a city with partially developed infrastructure in Ghana (Accra) and fully developed city in South Africa (Cape Town). Based on the cases, a few recommendations (road map) for the implementation of IUWM approach for other cities in Africa have been presented in chapter four.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
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.Publication Regional Poverty and Inequality Update: Latin America and the Caribbean, October 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-23)This brief summarizes recent facts related to poverty and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) using the latest wave of harmonized household surveys from the Socio-Economic Database for LAC (SEDLAC). This brief was produced by the Poverty Global Practice in the LAC Region of the World Bank.Publication The Future of Water in African Cities : Why Waste Water? Integrated Urban Water Management, Background Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-12)The primary objective of this report is to provide a coherent and comprehensive review on integrated urban water management (IUWM) approach to assist public authorities to identify and address the future challenges of urban water supply, sanitation and flood management in African cities. This report presents the existing and future challenges in Africa, the possible options for innovative technologies and approaches for their breakthrough and a way forward to achieve the objectives of IUWM. It highlights technical and institutional constraints of the IUWM in Africa. It presents the global and African best practices and trends in IUWM which are linked to urban development and which have very good lessons learnt that can be shared within and among the cities in Africa. The report consists of four chapters. Chapter two reviews the existing condition, future challenges and opportunities in Urban Water Sector (UWS) in Africa. The review covers the current situation of urban water systems and their management approaches; the major future change pressures (climate change, population growth and urbanization, deterioration of infrastructure systems) and their impacts on UWS; and opportunities for implementing the IUWM approach in Africa. Chapter three introduces the key concepts and conceptual framework of IUWM. The framework has been supplemented by appropriate technologies and innovative approaches of IUWM that will be suitable for cities in Africa. This chapter also presents the global experiences and best practices of IUWM that can be shared within the Africa cities. Chapter four presents case studies to demonstrate how the IUWM framework can be operationalized and to select the appropriate technologies and approaches as discussed in chapter 3 based on the different typologies of the cities and development stages in Africa. The typologies include an emerging town in Uganda (Masindi), a city with partially developed infrastructure in Ghana (Accra) and fully developed city in South Africa (Cape Town). Based on the cases, a few recommendations (road map) for the implementation of IUWM approach for other cities in Africa have been presented in chapter four.Publication Ukraine Country Environmental Analysis(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-01)The objective of the Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) is to assess the adequacy and performance of the policy, legal, and institutional framework for environmental management in Ukraine, in light of the decentralization process of environmental governance and wider reform objectives, and to provide recommendations to government to address the key gaps identified. Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe and has a population of 43 million, the majority of whom live in urban areas. It is a lower middle income country, with the services, industry and agriculture sectors being main contributors to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Ukraine faces a number of environmental challenges, as identified in its National Environmental Strategy 2020 (NES). Key among these are: air pollution; quality of water resources and land degradation; solid waste management; biodiversity loss; human health issues associated with environmental risk factors; in addition to climate change. The scope of Ukrainian environmental legislation is quite broad and comprehensive (more than 300 legal acts) and covers most areas of environmental protection and natural resources management. However, the environmental legislation faces a number of weaknesses:The environmental legislation is largely declaratory in nature and does not have all the essential enforcement mechanisms for the implementation of legal acts and international agreements; Many of the acts are not coordinated with each other; and Legislation undergoes limited analysis of its impact—for example, no in-depth analysis such as Regulatory Impact Analysis is conducted for proposed pieces of legislation.Publication Thailand Monthly Economic Monitor, October 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-22)Fiscal conditions remained stable, with a modest widening of the deficit to 3.1 percent of GDP. New stimulus measures are expected to support short-term demand without breaching the public debt ceiling. Inflation stayed negative, reflecting lower energy and food prices amid subdued domestic demand. The central bank kept the policy rate unchanged, citing limited policy space. Thailand’s growth momentum has slowed further as manufacturing activity and services weakened as projected. Tourism remained subdued, largely due to fewer Chinese visitors. Goods exports also slowed as earlier front-loaded orders faded, particularly in agriculture and industrial goods. The Thai baht depreciated in early October as the US dollar appreciated and the current account turned negative.