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The Water Strategy Has Been Only Partially Implementeduses more than three-quarters of the developingworld’s water resources, this is a cause forconcern. In most respects these findings showthat there are fundamental philosophical differencesin the way the sectors are treated. Irrigationand drainage are still very much in thepublic goods domain, dominated by conservativepublic sector agencies. Water supply and sanitationhave moved toward commercializationand, in some cases, privatization.Water Projects Tackle EnvironmentalIssues from Different FrontsWater development has profound impacts on theenvironment and its management. The Bankhas addressed these concerns directly throughenvironmentally focused water projects—andindirectly with safeguard policies to evaluatealternatives and provide plans that minimize ormitigate harmful effects. AFR, ECA, and MNAhave initiated a series of major initiatives withGEF to support integrated management of thebasins of regional seas and major rivers. A newinitiative for cooperative management of theMekong River basin has been undertaken byEAP. In LAC, a new GEF-supported regionalgroundwater management program has beeninitiated. Environmental projects in the water sectorrepresent a major growth area in the workof the Bank and are a source of innovation inapproaches to their identification, preparation,and implementation.Environmental projects are now the thirdlargest category of water-related institutionalsupport and investment in the Bank’s portfolio.This category increased from 11 projects pre-Strategy to 48 projects post-Strategy, and $3.3 billionhas been committed since 1993. Manynational programs deal with environmental managementthrough legislation and regulation thatincludes water and institution-building. Under theBaltic Sea, Danube Basin, and Black Sea environmentalprograms, the Bank is supportingnew initiatives to address the impacts of nonpointpollution from agriculture and rural settlementson surface and ground water resources.Specific projects are concerned with pollutioncontrol, drainage, watershed management, anderosion prevention. Groundwater management,neglected for so long, is beginning to receive theattention it deserves.Groundwater Has Been MismanagedGroundwater mismanagement has profoundsocial and environmental impacts. Most of theworld’s poor rely on groundwater for drinking,and as much as half the irrigation that sustainsthe green revolution has come from groundwater.But the lack of regulation and effectivewater pricing have led to the salinization ofaquifers on which people rely for water suppliesand agricultural employment. Notable examplesof such contamination include thecoastal aquifers of Gaza, Gujarat, west Java, andMexico.The Bank, having nearly ceased to financepublic sector groundwater development, is startingto focus on managerial and remedial measures,an effort it needs to expand rapidly. Mexicohas a new water management regime based ontransferable property rights, management byusers, and the elimination of distorting subsidies,and results are encouraging. In India, ruralpower subsidies promote overpumping ofgroundwater. These distortions are at last beingrecognized and addressed through Banksupportedstate fiscal reform programs.Investment Can Improve Drainage, butSustainability Is KeyPoor drainage spoils as much land as new irrigationcreates. Bank projects have been particularlyeffective in addressing this issue throughinvestment, as in Pakistan, but sustainability remainsa problem. In Egypt and Turkey, investmentin drainage projects enabled irrigated cropyields to double in many areas, but weak linksbetween irrigation and drainage agencies and theemerging water user associations threaten operationand maintenance. Community involvementunderlies the success of soil reclamationthrough better groundwater management anddrainage in Uttar Pradesh.Successful Watershed Management RequiresParticipation and a Long-term PerspectiveAlthough almost $1 billion has been invested inwatershed management, only a few projects are21
Bridging Troubled Waters: Assessing the World Bank Water Resources Strategyfree-standing, with three-quarters of the 42 watershedoperations embedded in more general developmentprojects cutting across 11 subsectors. 5The primary focus of the majority of watershedprojects is on improving soil and water conservation,not on managing watersheds as a whole.A quarter of the projects deal with reducing siltation,fewer than 10 percent with pollution reduction,and less than 5 percent with integratedwater management. Projects in Europe and CentralAsia and in East Asia and the Pacific are concernedmore with the effects of pollution andsiltation, those in LAC with agricultural management,and those in Africa with community resourcemanagement.The most successful projects have high governmentand community ownership, mainly becausethey have sharply focused objectives.Poorly performing projects tended to focus onshort-term goals supported by project subsidiesthat could not be sustained in the long term, werenot supported by an enabling environment, anddepended too much on ineffective governmentagencies unable to coordinate effectively at thelocal level or scale up the few successes.Compare them with the successful MadagascarSecond Environment Program prepared entirelyby Malagasy agencies that took a longview—15 years—with the strategy of mainstreamingenvironmental concerns into macroeconomicmanagement and sector programs.Under the program, Malagasy agencies, assistedby 10 donors and four international NGOs,worked in teams to formulate the institutional andinvestment program. With this broad consensuson strategy and coordination, implementationof water-related components is proceeding well. 6Another notable success, China’s Loess PlateauWatershed Rehabilitation Project, has substantiallyreduced local soil erosion by 20–30 million tonsannually (and the total sediment load of the YellowRiver by about 1 percent). It has also broughtsubstantial socioeconomic benefits to marginalfarmers on the plateau.Compliance with Safeguards IsDemandingSince the water Strategy was issued, almostthree-quarters of all water projects have beenclassified as environmentally sensitive—a markedincrease. Seven safeguard policies particularlyapply to water operations (box 3.1). Those classifiedas likely to have potentially adverse environmentalimpacts that are sensitive, diverse,or unprecedented (category A) have tripled innumber and doubled their share in the totalportfolio. There is now greater willingness to acknowledgesite-specific impacts (category B)that can be mitigated or reversed. Presumablya result of more careful project design and/or selection,the proportion of water projects forcinginvoluntary resettlement has fallen by a tenth—to 37 percent of all Bank projects. Dam safetyrequirements are routinely applied to any projectinvolving the impoundment of water. TheIndia and Indonesia dam safety projects havebeen the first Bank operations addressing damsafety per se. 7 Based on the lessons form theseprojects is a second generation of dam safetyprojects and components under the Aral SeaBasin Program and in Albania, Armenia, theKyrgyz Republic, Peru, and Sri Lanka.The compliance at entry of water projectswith safeguards is higher than that of other Bankprojects. But this assessment comes largely froma desk review that dealt with only two environ-Box 3.1W orldBankSafeguardPoliciesThe objective of these safeguard policies is to ensurethat Bank operations do not cause harm whenthey are trying to help. Seven of the policies are theones most likely to be invoked for water operations:Environment• Environmental assessment (OP 4.01)• Natural habitats (OP 4.04)Rural Development• Safety of dams (OP 4.37)Social Development• Cultural property (OPN 11.03)• Involuntary resettlement (OP 4.30)• Indigenous peoples (OP 4.20)International Law• Projects on international waterways (OP 7.50)22
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Page 10 and 11: ENGLISHFOREWORDThe comprehensiveapp
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Page 71: ANNEXESANNEX A:WORLD BANK OPERATION
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Bridging Troubled Waters: Assessing
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ANNEX E:SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT DIMENSIO
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Annexesdirectly with the poor and/o
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Annexesexisting informal and small-
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AnnexesT able E.1V ariables in Data
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AnnexesT able E.1V ariables in Data
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ANNEX F:RESETTLEMENT IN BANK WATER
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ANNEX G:WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
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AnnexesFigure G.1Staff Questionnair
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ANNEX H:THE DIFFICULTIES OF INTEGRA
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Annexesactivities. To mitigate thes
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