March 2002

WATER AND SANITATION

WATER MANAGEMENT REMAINS VEXING PROBLEM DESPITE PROGRESS

Current IDB-financed projects stress institution building and community participation

Despite significant progress in past decades, the social and economic development of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean remains hobbled by serious water management problems that could be exacerbated in the future by increasing numbers of people and their concentration in urban centers.

The problems range from the lack of potable water systems in low-income neighborhoods to management of entire river basins to safeguard water supplies and prevent natural disasters. Many experts predict that water will emerge as the critical worldwide resource for this present century.

How to address these problems and finance their solution in the coming years will be the focus of the seminar on "Strategic issues of water use and management in Latin America and the Caribbean: an action agenda," that will be held at the Bank's Annual Meeting in Fortaleza, Brazil, on March 7. Participants will include IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias, state of Ceará Governor Tasso Jereissati, former IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus, and Brazilian Environment Minister José Sarney Filho, as well as experts from the public and private sector in Brazil and other IDB member countries.

Results of the seminar will be used to help formulate a financing action plan addressed at solving the most pressing water related problems of the region. The plan will also support the objectives of the Third World Water Forum set for March 2003 in Japan.

In the past, water issues were usually addressed primarily at the technical level, according to Diego Rodríguez, IDB economist and seminar organizer. Looking ahead to the Japan meeting, the Bank will help to place the subject on the political agenda. "Water resources contribute to the development of a country by reducing poverty and ultimately by increasing the region's economic growth," said Rodríguez.

The status of water resources is of considerable concern to the IDB, which has directed a priority portion of its resources to financing the social sectors. The Bank has invested more than $35 billion in the water and sanitation sector since its inception over 40 years ago. The first IDB-financed project was for a water project in Arequipa, Perú. Throughout the region, millions of people in both urban and rural areas are presently served by IDB-financed potable water and sanitation systems.

Yet despite both these investments and the undeniable gains that they have produced, some 120 million people in the region still lack access to sanitation systems and 78 million do not have potable water connections. "If we keep in mind that the region's total population numbers 500 million, these are alarming numbers," says Rodriguez.

The problems are aggravated further by what Rodríguez calls "major losses" through leakage in potable water systems and the lack of treatment for sewage.

Weak management has been identified as a root cause of potable water and sanitation problems, as well as water pollution, water shortages, lack of preparedness for natural disasters, and inefficient irrigation works.

The IDB is presently funding a series of projects that are putting the issues of planning and management in a priority position. These are what Rodríguez calls "software" components: institutional strengthening, public participation, and training.

A group of particularly ambitious Bank-financed water management projects are being carried out in Brazil. In São Paulo, a project to bring the biologically dead Tietê River back to life through massive sanitation works is presently in its second stage. In Rio de Janeiro, a program to clean up Guanabara Bay will increase sewerage coverage from the present 35 to 50 percent of residents.

In Brazil's state of Rio Grande do Sul, a project to restore the quality of water in the Guaíba Lake basin is already well advanced in its objective of providing a total of over 400,000 people with sewerage coverage. In addition to infrastructure works, some 3,600 technical and administrative staff is being trained in water quality and waste management.

In the state of Bahia, in the poorest region of Brazil, a basic sanitation project will increase sewerage coverage in the city of Salvador from 26 to 82 percent, raise potable water coverage in 11 municipalities from 57 to 80 percent, and provide 70 percent sewerage coverage in eight municipalities where there is presently none.

Upcoming IDB projects include potable water and sanitation works for the Annual Meeting host city of Fortaleza and communities elsewhere in the state of Ceará. In the state of Goiás, water and sanitation services will be improved and managed by the private sector.