Working in the rice paddies near Mantasoa, Madagascar September 2, 2010
Bank’s reputation and analysis helps clients tackle important but difficult projects
Mid-Cycle Review “reaffirms” soundness of Bank’s 2003 water strategy
More engagement sought in water storage against floods and drought, hydropower
Farming and food security, renewable energy, flood control, child mortality, climate change, forests and ecosystems. All of these key development priorities have one thing in common: water.
As the urgency attending many of these issues has mounted, annual commitments for water projects by the World Bank Group reached $6.2 billion in 2009, up from $1.8 billion in 2003. But one water expert notes that the Bank’s more significant contribution to helping developing countries solve water challenges is mobilizing its analytical expertise in a way that gets decision-makers’ attention.
“The World Bank has helped us bring a rational approach to the water issue,” said Jerson Kelman, Chief Executive Officer of Light SA, Brazil’s largest hydropower utility and formerly founding president of Brazil’s national water agency. He said that having the Bank involved was “a shield for us”, as using the Bank’s reputation and technical analyses enabled Brazil to implement otherwise-stalled hydropower projects which were the highest priority of President Lula. These helped ensure an open, competitive bidding process which resulted in huge gains for Brazilian consumers, he said.
Kelman made the comments at a recent discussion (link to video) focused on a review of the Bank’s 2003 water resources strategy, entitled Sustaining Water for All in a Changing Climate. The report, prepared by Nancy Vandycke, Lead Economist in the Energy, Transport and Water Anchor unit, also cited the importance of “analytic instruments” as a complement to increased lending in the water sector.
"Only 23 percent of hydropower potential in developing countries has been exploited. The gains for the poor can be enormous."|Inger Andersen, Vice President, Sustainable Development, The World Bank
Indeed, as Jamal Saghir, until recently Director of the Bank’s Energy, Transport and Water Anchor unit pointed out, development policy lending (DPLs) for water increased tenfold from $114 million in 2003 to $1.2 billion in 2009. Saghir, now Director of Sustainable Development for the Africa Region, also noted that while middle-income countries such as Brazil seek expertise more than lending from the Bank, low-income countries in Africa and elsewhere need water infrastructure financing along with the analytical services.
Sustaining Water for All in a Changing Climate reaffirms the soundness of the 2003 water strategy, and notes that the increased water sector lending—both “hard” infrastructure finance and “soft” DPLs—is accompanied by highly satisfactory outcome ratings for projects, and an appropriate emphasis on high-priority countries, that is, countries whose people face obstacles to their access to water.
"These findings (from the report) will guide the Bank’s Water Anchor and the regions from now to 2013."|Julia Bucknall, Water Sector Manager, The World Bank
The implementation progress report does, however, call for more pronounced emphasis on integrating water resource management more closely with development of water infrastructure and delivery of water services. This means thinking explicitly of surface and groundwater, as well as their quality and quantity, when investing in water services. Practical tools such as the Bank’s groundwater case notes can help practitioners incorporate these analyses.
To help countries better manage water resources, the report says, the Bank needs to help them build better hydrological data, using both traditional means and new technology, including remote sensing and improved weather forecasting. “We really can’t sidestep solid hydrological analysis,” said Julia Bucknall, Manager of the Bank’s Water Sector Anchor unit.
In addition to better technologies and data, the Bank needs to help countries build water management institutions that work, said John Briscoe, a former senior water advisor at the Bank and architect of the 2003 strategy, who now teaches environmental engineering at Harvard. The Bank, he said, must use its reputation to “help countries produce governments that function—this is the central element without which there will be no solution to the water problem.”
Sustaining Water for All also calls for scaled up support for hydropower, including high-risk-high-reward infrastructure projects, along with an enhanced focus on water for climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Inger Andersen, Vice President for Sustainable Development, singled out this recommendation, noting that, “only 23 percent of hydropower potential in developing countries has been exploited. The gains for the poor can be enormous.”
“To achieve those gains successfully we must engage with communities pro-actively to identify local benefits and manage and mitigate any risks associated with hydropower projects.”
These last two directions which, like all of the report’s recommendations, have been endorsed by the Board’s Committee on Development Effectiveness, were also underlined by both Kelman and Briscoe.
Kelman chided the Bank for having been “more concerned about a small NGO demonstrating against hydro projects at 1818 H Street, than about those who will benefit from the dam and the elected governments,” who are trying to respond to their citizens’ need for electricity. He therefore welcomed the report’s call for an assertive and sustained effort on large and small hydropower, both of which, he said “are low-carbon.” (Read the Bank’s Hydropower Business Plan).
Sustaining Water for All in a Changing Climate also lamented slow progress on the Millennium Development Goal of reducing by half the proportion of people without access to improved sanitation, as well as the continuing shortage of reliable data on water availability and use.
Water Sector Manager Julia Bucknall welcomed the directions outlined in the report which, she said, were aligned with key findings in the March 2010 Independent Evaluation Group report on water. “These findings will guide the Bank’s Water Anchor and the regions from now to 2013,” she said.
RSS
