WASHINGTON – The World Bank announced a plan on April 15 that aims to improve secure water access for a billion people within the next four years.
The new Water Forward programme will “expand reliable water services and strengthen systems against droughts and floods”.
The Bank said its own funds and technical advice would help improve water supplies to some 400 million people by 2030, with the balance coming from partners.
Water “determines whether people are healthy enough to work, whether children have a childhood to learn and to explore, and whether businesses can operate and economies can grow,” World Bank President Ajay Banga said.
The programme will see countries identify areas of priority, then “development banks, governments, philanthropies, most importantly, the private sector as well, align behind that plan,” he said.
The global lender did not specify how much capital it would commit to the initiative.
Other participating institutions include regional development banks, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ development fund, and the BRICS grouping-aligned New Development Bank.
Fourteen countries had already voluntarily committed to reforming and strengthening their water sectors under the new programme, the Bank said.
Some four billion people – half the world’s population – face water scarcity, due in part to “unclear policies, weak regulations, and financially unsustainable utilities that have slowed progress and deterred investment”, the World Bank said.
The focus on governance issues – not simply physical water infrastructure – is promising, Mr David Michel, senior associate at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, said.
“In many countries, the water sector fails to fully deploy the funds already allocated to it.”
However, the bank’s initiative “faces a long and difficult road ahead”, he warned, noting that countries with the greatest water insecurity often have the least capacity to reform.
The issue of access to safe drinking water has been highlighted during the war in the Middle East, with desalination plants in Iran and across the region damaged in bombardments.
Beyond conflicts and immediate drinking water needs, the World Bank said that better water security was needed to grow the global economy.
“Strong water systems are foundational to healthy economies that can attract private investment and create jobs,” it said. AFP