Download Report - Independent Evaluation Group - World Bank

Bridging Troubled Waters: Assessing the World Bank Water Resources StrategyFigure 3.3Comprehensive Coverage ofNational and River Basin StrategyElements Varies by RegionEAPECARegionSARLACMNAAFRProjectRiver basinNational0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%Coverage of Strategy principlesMorocco, where the Water Resources Managementproject is piloting a River Basin Agency,and Jordan, where the Jordan River Valley Authorityis central to Bank assistance for reform.The real cause for concern is the scant progressmade at the national and basin level in South Asiaand in Latin America and the Caribbean, althoughthere are exceptions in Brazil, Nepal,and Bangladesh. In Latin America, Bank wateroperations are most active in water supply andsanitation and are not linked to river basin management.Three exceptions are flood protectionassistance in Argentina, water quality managementin Brazil’s Guarapiranga project, and integratedwater resources management in the riverbasins of Brazil’s Ceara state. Most of the Bank’swater-related efforts in Latin America are stronglylinked to commercialization or to ensure environmentaland social sustainability.The Bank scores highly on its responsivenessto the Strategy at the basin level in the ECA andEAP regions, frequently because water projectsdovetail neatly into existing regional sea or riverbasin management organizations. Even so, theBank has been very effective in improving operationand longer-term planning—and, particularlyin China, in augmenting measures to improvefinancial and environmental sustainability.The improvement in strategy responsivenessof regional water portfolios since 1993 is a measureof the Regions’ effectiveness in promotingthe water Strategy (figure 3.4). While MNA andAFR started at the bottom, they show the mostimprovement over the past six years. Startinghigher, Latin America and the Caribbean showsthe smallest improvement. In all cases, the levelof improvement is strongly related to the regionalorganization for water resources management,as discussed in Chapter 5.As Have SubsectorsThe various water subsectors also differ in theextent to which they have followed the Strategy.Subsectors vary substantially in integrating projectsinto policy, institutional, development, andplanning frameworks (figure 3.5). Except forthe water resource management and sector projects,all other subsectors give the greatest attentionto project design issues that attempt tointernalize local externalities. Irrigation—the traditionalhome of water resources planning andmanagement in most client countries—is below18