Water is receiving increasing attention from the World Bank and other donors as issues of rising demand, declining availability, pollution, and the need for conservation grow in urgency. Since 1993, the Bank has invested $16 billion in water-related projects, with over 180 new operations costing $40 billion in 80 countries. The Bank’s portfolio of water projects accounts for 14 percent of Bank lending. Between 1985 and 1998 the Bank invested more than $33 billion in water-related projects.
The Bank has been working since the mid-1980s on policies and strategies to better manage water resources, integrating the disparate and often competing uses of water (such as for water supply and sanitation, irrigation, hydro-power, industry and ecosystems) into a sustainable, holistic approach.
The Bank’s Operations Evaluation Department is conducting a major review of the implementation of the Bank’s 1993 Water Resources Management Policy Paper as the Bank prepares to update its approach to the sector.
Collaborating with other development institutions, including multilateral and bilateral development agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector, is an essential aspect of the World Bank’s support for the sector, as is the ability to share knowledge about best practices.
Below is a sampling of some of the recent initiatives, programs, and partnering activities in water-related areas:
International Watercourses — The Bank is currently supporting cooperation in a number of international basins, including the Aral Sea, the Mekong Basin, Lake Victoria, the Nile and the Senegal River. One channel for dealing with global water politics and transboundary cooperation is the Development Policy Forum, or DPF. In March 1998, the World Bank participated in a major international dialogue on water initiated by the German Foundation for International Development, which resulted in the Petersberg Declaration. In this Declaration, ministers, senior policymakers, researchers, and representatives from the private sector and NGOs agreed to take complementary actions to promote the improved management of shared water resources. They looked at such regional case studies as the experience with river basin management of the Rhine and Danube rivers; emerging water resources management issues in the Southern Africa Region; progress in cooperative management of the Mekong River in Southeast Asia; and current issues in international management in the Middle East with a focus on the Jordan River Basin. They agreed on an integrated approach that would include focus on cooperation at the regional level; support for international river basin commissions; and strengthening institutional frameworks.
Nile Basin Initiative — The Nile Basin Initiative provides a forum for the 10 Nile riparian countries (the nations through which the Nile flows) to foster cooperative Nile waters development and management. As a result of intensive consultation, for the first time all riparian countries (except Eritrea) have formed a transitional institution consisting of a council of ministers, a technical advisory committee and a secretariat. The participants have adopted a Shared Vision which puts socio-economic development and shared benefits from common Nile waters at its center, and defined a process for the preparation of projects within a Strategic Action Program. This will include basin-wide capacity building ("shared vision") activities, as well as sub-basin investment projects by groups of riparian countries. As soon as an initial set of projects will have been prepared, the World Bank will convene a donor consortium to seek coordinated financing. The World Bank is working on the Nile Basin Initiative in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Canadian International Development Agency.
Global Water Partnership—Set up in 1996 and with a Secretariat based in Stockholm, the Global Water Partnership (GWP) is an international network committed to sustainable water management. It includes representation from service users, service providers, and financiers. The GWP’s Consultative Group is chaired by Ismail Serageldin, head of the World Commission on Water and World Bank Vice President for Special Programs. The Bank participates along with the UNDP and a number of bilateral agencies as sponsors of the GWP.
The Partnership supports a Technical Advisory Committee of 12 leading water experts, as well as a Steering Committee with representation from several developing countries and key donor agencies supportive of water issues.
GWP’s Secretariat helps develop ideas into fundable projects for presentation to donors. These include both global programs (such as the International Program for Technological Research in Irrigation and Drainage, executed by the FAO, and the Water and Sanitation Program, executed by the World Bank) and regional programs (including the African Water Utilities Partnership, and emerging Regional Water Partnerships in Southern Africa, South and South East Asia, Latin America, etc.)
The GWP is linked to Water Forum that serves as an independent venue for key stakeholders wishing to exchange information and explore topical issues. The Forum is maintained by the Stockholm Environment Institute with support from GWP and sponsored by the UNDP.
Business Partners for Development (BPD) Water Cluster Initiative — The BPD Water Cluster initiative involves a group of private/public sector/civil society stakeholders who are taking on the challenge of how private concessionaires can provide water and sanitation services to the urban poor in ways that are sustainable as well as commercially viable.
The Cluster has convened several international meetings in the past 18 months. These sessions were co-convened by Générale des Eaux (Vivendi), WaterAid and the WBG, and chaired by WaterAid. Eight companies participated, along with nine representatives from civil society.
The Water Cluster will pursue seven focus projects: in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Buenos Aires, Argentina; La Paz / El Alto, Bolivia; Cartagena, Colombia; Eastern Cape and Northern Province, South Africa; Pietermaritzburg, South Africa; and Jakarta, Indonesia. In all cases, operational costs of the projects are born by the sponsoring corporation, totaling approximately $3 million per year.
A study visit is planned this month to the Buenos Aires project. Lessons from this visit will be shared with key players at a session "Partners to deliver water to the urban poor" to take place at a Water Forum in mid-April (Washington, DC).
World Commission on Dams — The multi-stakeholder, 12-member World Commission on Dams (WCD) was launched in February 1998. This independent Commission is chaired by Professor Kader Asmal, Minister of Water Resources and Forest Affairs, South Africa. The WCD has a two-year mandate to review the development effectiveness of dams and develop internationally acceptable guidelines addressing central issues associated with the wide-spread controversies over dams. The WCD is scheduled to submit its final report to the international community in June 2000.
The WCD is looking at 8-12 in depth case-studies world-wide that will draw lessons on interactive/cumulative effects of large dams in basin areas, as well as data-base information on the non-focal dams in the basin.
The Commission is also conducting a cross-check analysis of a sample of 150+ large dams.
Thematic reviews will be performed on cross-cutting themes in the Social, Environmental, Financial/Economic, Institutional, and Options Assessment fields.
At the request of the Commission, the World Bank provides input and information to help WCD with its case studies, for example on Zambia/Zimbabwe (Kariba dam; Zambezi river), Thailand (Pak Mun dam; Mun/Mekong river), Pakistan (Tarbela dam; Indus river), Brazil (Itaipu or Tucurui dam; Tocatins/Amazon river).
World Water Council -- Formed in 1996, the World Water Council (WWC) is a 175-member group of leading environmental policymakers, water ministers, scientists, and representatives of international agencies. WWC’s President is Dr. Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, Egypt’s Minister of Water and Public Works. The WWC is a water policy think tank dedicated to providing decision-makers with the advice and assistance on water issues of global magnitude. The WWC has formed a World Commission on Water for the 21st Century, a sub-group that is formulating a "World Water Vision for Life and the Environment for the 21st Century." The Commission, which is co-sponsored by all major UN agencies, is chaired by Ismail Serageldin, who is also Chairman of the Global Water Partnership and Vice-President of the World Bank.
WBI Water Policy Reform Program — The World Bank Institute, the Bank’s training and teaching arm (formerly known as the Economic Development Institute, or EDI), has a program to help countries prepare and implement policy reforms leading to sustainable water resources management, through capacity building and learning activities of various types. These activities include policy services (seminars and study tours) focused nationally for immediate impact, regional or worldwide events, and courses and training materials on water policy design implementation. For example, EDI is playing a lead role in the Africa Water Resources Management Initiative (AWRMI), which is bringing together African water ministers, donors, and other stakeholders to coordinate regional and national initiatives for improving water resource management in the region. The AWRMI will hold a major policy conference in Nairobi from May 24-27.
UNDP-World Bank Water and Sanitation Program — The Water and Sanitation Program is an international partnership that has evolved over two decades and advocates a demand-based approach to the provision of safe water and sanitation in developing countries. The Program is organized into five regional teams in Africa, Asia and Latin America with resources concentrated in focus countries. The regional teams are supported by technical and administrative staff located in Washington, DC at the World Bank. Financing comes from 16 bilateral donor agencies, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Bank and from the countries themselves.
Contact: Merrell Tuck (202) 473-9516
