Publication:
Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources and Adaptation in the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Sector in Nicaragua

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (9.06 MB)
1,507 downloads
English Text (149.46 KB)
114 downloads
English PDF (9.06 MB)
262 downloads
English Text (149.46 KB)
54 downloads
Published
2013-01
ISSN
Date
2014-01-17
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
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.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2013. Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources and Adaptation in the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Sector in Nicaragua. Latin America and Caribbean Region Environment and Water Resources occasional paper series;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16586 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    India Groundwater Governance Case Study
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-06) Garduño, Héctor; Romani, Saleem; Sengupta, Buba; Tuinhof, Albert; Davis, Richard
    Groundwater comprises 97 percent of the worlds readily accessible freshwater and provides the rural, urban, industrial and irrigation water supply needs of 2 billion people around the world. As the more easily accessed surface water resources are already being used, pressure on groundwater is growing. In the last few decades, this pressure has been evident through rapidly increasing pumping of groundwater, accelerated by the availability of cheap drilling and pumping technologies and, in some countries, energy subsidies that distort decisions about exploiting groundwater. This accelerated growth in groundwater exploitation unplanned, unmanaged, and largely invisible has been dubbed by prominent hydro geologists the silent revolution. It is a paradox that such a vast and highly valuable resource which is likely to become even more important as climate change increasingly affects surface water sources has been so neglected by governments and the development community at a time when interest and support for the water sector as a whole is at an all-time high. This case study is a background paper for the World Bank economic and sector analysis (ESW) entitled too big to fail: the paradox of groundwater governance that aims to understand and address the paradox at the heart of the groundwater governance challenge in order to elevate the need for investing in and promoting proactive reforms toward its management. The project examines the impediments to better governance of groundwater, and explores opportunities for using groundwater to help developing countries adapt to climate change. Its recommendations will guide the Bank in its investments on groundwater and provide the Bank's contributions to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded global project groundwater governance: a framework for country action. The case study focused on the national, state and local levels. At the national and state levels, it analyzed the policy, legal, and institutional arrangements to identify the demand and supply management and incentive structures that have been established for groundwater management. At the local level, it assessed the operations, successes, and constraints facing local institutions in the governance of a number of aquifers within peninsula India, on the coast and on the plain of the Ganges river valley.
  • Publication
    Water and Development : An Evaluation of World Bank Support, 1997-2007, Volume 2. Appendixes
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010) Independent Evaluation Group
    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
    Water and Climate Change
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-06) Clifton, Craig; Evans, Rick; Hayes, Susan; Hirji, Rafik; Puz, Gabrielle; Pizarro, Carolina
    Adaptation to climate impacts on groundwater resources in developed and developing countries has not received adequate attention. This reflects the often poorly understood impacts of climate change, the hidden nature of groundwater and the general neglect of groundwater management. Many developing countries are highly reliant on groundwater. Given expectations of reduced supply in many regions and growing demand, pressure on groundwater resources is set to escalate. This is a crucial problem and demands urgent action. This report addresses the impacts of climate change on groundwater and adaptation options. The Earth's climate is projected to become warmer and more variable. Increased global temperatures are projected to affect the hydrologic cycle, leading to changes in precipitation patterns and increases in the intensity and frequency of extreme events; reduced snow cover and widespread melting of ice; rising sea levels; and changes in soil moisture, runoff and groundwater recharge. Increased evaporation and the risk of flooding and drought could adversely affect security of water supply, particularly surface water. Due to these pressures, as well as global population growth, demand for groundwater is likely to increase.
  • Publication
    The Cost of Environmental Degradation : Case Studies from the Middle East and North Africa
    (World Bank, 2010-08-01) Croitoru, Lelia; Sarraf, Maria; Croitoru, Lelia; Sarraf, Maria; Ghariani, Fadhel; Matoussi, Mohamed Salah; Daly-Hassen, Hamed; Jabarin, Amer; Jorio, Abdeljaouad; El Fadel, Mutasem; El-Jisr, Karim; Ikäheimo, Erkki; Gundlach, Erich; Al-Duaij, Samia; Cervigni, Raffaello
    Environmental degradation is costly, to individuals, to societies, and to the environment. This book, edited by Lelia Croitoru and Maria Sarraf, makes these costs clear by examining a number of studies carried out over the past few years by the World Bank's Middle East and North Africa region. Even more important than estimating the monetary cost of environmental degradation (COED), however, are the clear guidance and policy implications derived from these findings. This volume presents a new approach to estimating the impacts of environmental degradation. In the past, when government officials asked researchers the simple question how large are the impacts of environmental degradation? The response was often an emphatic 'large!' a rather imprecise number. The strength of this work is that it actually quantifies in economic terms how large is 'large' and thereby gains the attention of decision makers and offers specific insights for improved policy making. Finally, this book demonstrates the benefits of doing a coordinated, regional COED analysis that builds on the country-level studies. This two-tiered approach produces important synergies, in terms of both the methodologies used and the lessons learned.
  • Publication
    Policy and Investment Priorities to Reduce Environmental Degradation of the Lake Nicaragua Watershed (Cocibolca) : Addressing Key Environmental Challenges
    (Washington, DC, 2013-01) World Bank
    This study, policy and investment priorities to reduce environmental degradation of the Lake Nicaragua watershed, has assessed the sources and the magnitude of the pressures that threaten Lake Cocibolca. It was accomplished by applying a hydrological and land use model to the lake's watershed and by conducting additional estimates of nutrients generated from wastewater sources and tilapia farming. The study has confirmed that sediment loads are very high, and has estimated their magnitude in each sub-watershed. The key results of the study are the estimation of sedimentation levels in the watershed and the identification of erosion hotspots. The Lake Cocibolca watershed is a globally unique cradle of biodiversity with major importance not only to the global and local environment, but also to the 750,000 people living within its boundaries. Several fish species are endemic to the lake, and the watershed's location within the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor has made it a meeting ground for fish, bird and mammal species from North and South America. Apart from its importance for fishing and recreation industries, the lake is beginning to be used as a source of water supply for some coastal towns; its role as a source of drinking water may grow in the future. Lake Cocibolca and its watershed are under pressure from multiple sources but, in the absence of reliable monitoring information, the extent of the environmental degradation is unclear. Environmental deterioration in the watershed is high on the government's agenda.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    World Development Report 2006
    (Washington, DC, 2005) World Bank
    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) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    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
    Argentina Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank Group
    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
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    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
    Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022
    (Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank
    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.