Urban Environment and Pollution Control

The environmental problems in cities of Latin America and the Caribbean are imposing new challenges to their economic development, competitiveness and quality of life. Environmental priorities such as air quality, access to potable water and disaster risk management, demand strategic and programmatic responses to better address each country's needs and channel financial resources for new investments and institutional strengthening in a more effective way.  

Over the last four decades Latin American and Caribbean has undergone a rural to urban transformation. For example in 1990, the region had more than 40 metropolitan areas with populations over one million, including four of the world's largest cities (Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires), each with a populations of over ten million. Facing severe fiscal resource constraints and lax management systems, these urban agglomerations seriously strain the resource base of their surrounding hinterlands (e.g. water supply quality and quantity), and present health risks arising from vehicular and industrial air pollution, contaminated surface and groundwater, and solid waste collection and disposal.

Urban Environmental Management includes the processes and actions that are aimed toward solving the environmental problems and responding to the opportunities of growing cities.  Both problems and opportunities vary according to the spatial, administrative and financial capabilities of city governments. Urban Environmental Management focuses on the administration (eg. adequate and efficient use, conservation, protection and improvement) of the natural and built environment, the natural resources and services that they provide to the cities. According to the regional or national administrative arrangements, and the function and scale of an urban center, its government may be part of the municipal or metropolitan government. In Latin America, the majority of the urban centers are a responsibility of the municipal government, which is responsible not only for the urbanized areas but also for the planning and management of the regional territory, its resources and interindependencies. 

The Bank's Environment Policy and its linkages with Urban Environmental Management: In the context of the Bank's Environment Policy, Urban Environmental Management to the mainstreaming of environmental considerations into economic development and sectoral policies, as established in the new Environment and Safeguards compliance policy approved by the Board of Directors in January 19th of 2006. According to the cross-sectoral dimension of the Mainstreaming directive, the Policy requires to mainstream environmental consideration in Country Programming and Strategies, including urban areas, in order to enhance countries' competitiveness and their social and environmental sustainability in the long term. Similarly, the Policy establishes that the Bank will undertake strategic analytical work in areas and sectors relevant to its mission. For instance, by identifying challenges and opportunities in the area of environmental governance, the Bank will be able to guide the early phases of planning, design and implementation of its operations.