Cyclical droughts have had a severe impact on the socio-economic development of the Ceará State in Northeast Brazil. In the 1980s, the State initiated an ambitious program to overcome the impact of droughts by modernizing its water resources management system. These reforms have been supported by the World Bank through three consecutive loans. 

The Ceará Integrated Water Resources Management Project (PROGERIRH) aims to increase the sustainable water supply for multiple uses, improve the efficiency of Ceará's integrated water resources management system, and decrease the vulnerability of poor populations to cyclical drought.

Current project priorities include:

• improving the institutional, legal and administrative management of the water system; 
   
• rehabilitating and building hydraulic infrastructure;
   
• developing sustainable cost recovery, management, operation and maintenance systems for the hydraulic infrastructure; and
   
• integrating environmental policies with water management policies.

Project impacts: The project is financing the construction of a conveyance system to withdraw water from the Castanhão reservoir, in the middle of the State, and transfer it through a set of 255 km of canals and pipelines up to the Fortaleza Metropolitan Region (Ceará State capital). The system will:

• guarantee quality and quantity water supply for 5.6 million inhabitants (42% of State population, year 2030) living in 17 municipalities and 57 communities, including the Fortaleza Metropolitan region;
   
• provide safe water to 23,000 ha of irrigated areas and to the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex, Ceará’s most important port area.