Water For Shared Prosperity Report

General Studies Paper-3

Context: The World Bank has released the Water For Shared Prosperity report at the 10th World Water Forum in Bali, Indonesia.

• World Water Forum
  • The World Water Forum is organized every three years between the World Water Council and a host country.
  • The Forum provides a unique platform where the water community and key decision makers can collaborate and make long-term progress on global water challenges.
  • The Forum brings together participants from all levels and areas, including politics, multilateral institutions, academia, civil society and the private sector, among others

About

• It highlights the global inequalities in water access and recommends pro-poor and inclusive interventions to improve water security and boosting shared prosperity.
• The report emphasises the widening gap in access to water resources and services, with implications for human and economic development worldwide.

Major Highlights of the Report

• Water determines prosperity through three primary channels: as safe drinking water, as an essential input for various economic sectors, and as a critical support for ecosystems.
• Access to Safe Water: In 2022, 2.2 billion people lacked access to safely managed drinking water services, while 3.5 billion lacked access to safely managed sanitation.
  • Low-income countries, in particular, have seen regression in access to safe drinking water, with an additional 197 million people lacking access since 2000.
• Rural – Urban Gap: Eight out of ten people who do not have access to basic drinking water and sanitation services live in rural areas, and little progress has been made in closing the rural-urban access gap in low-income countries over the last two decades.
• Most Water Stressed: Hotspots in the Sahel, Southeastern Africa, and South and Central Asia are the most water stressed.
  • The Democratic Republic of the Congo has more than half of Africa’s total water resources.
• Climate change: Climate change is also increasing water-related risks.
  • Between 2000 and 2021, developing countries experienced more severe droughts and longer-lasting floods than advanced economies, which had long-term consequences for nutrition, school attendance, and economic welfare.
• Risk of Drought: Globally, over 800 million people are at high risk of drought, with twice as many living in flood-prone areas.
• Employment: Water-intensive sectors account for 56 percent of jobs in low-income countries but only 20 percent in high-income countries.
  • In Sub-Saharan Africa, where water-dependent jobs account for 62 percent of total employment, low rainfall availability frequently results in significant negative gross domestic product or GDP growth.
• Poor Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH): At the global level, during 2019 alone, poor WASH conditions contributed to between 1.4 and 4.2 million deaths.
  • Lack of access to WASH also affects optimal cognitive development, school attainment, labor productivity, and income.

Recommendations

• Enhancing resilience to extreme hydro-climatic risks for the poorest by
  • Setting up robust and inclusive early-warning systems.
  • Developing insurance programs for weather risks.
  • Scaling up social protection schemes to assist vulnerable communities impacted by floods, droughts, or both.
• Improving water resources development, management, and allocation by
  • Scaling up nature-based solutions through innovative financing schemes and evidence-based approaches.
  • Enabling coordination of and cooperation for water allocation through information sharing and financial incentives.
  • Adopting water accounting to inform water allocation decisions.
• Improving equitable and inclusive service delivery by
  • Scaling up financing through institutional and tariff reforms.
  • Creating an enabling regulatory and policy environment to promote innovations.
• Improving coordination of institutions responsible for water, health, education, and urban planning.