Home 
Topics Water Water Financing Program
 | |
Water Financing Program 2006-2010
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Under ADB's Water Financing Program 2006-2010, investments in water are expected to double and be directed toward reforms and capacity development programs at rural communities, cities and river basins. |
MORE ON WFP
|
Water is central to human existence. It is also a key factor in reducing poverty, improving livelihoods, and promoting economic growth. Yet, investments to provide people with safe drinking water and decent toilet facilities, to allocate and preserve water resources, and to properly manage wastewater have fallen seriously behind demands. In 2002, about 700 million people in the Asia-Pacific region were still without safe water supplies and some 2 billion had inadequate or no toilet facilities.
The Asia Water Watch 2015 study, commissioned by ADB, WHO, UNDP, and UNESCAP, estimates that annual investments of $8 billion - at the minimum - will be needed over the next decade to meet Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for safe drinking water and sanitation alone. Additional investments are needed for irrigation services, river basin management, flood management and mitigation, and wastewater management to ensure the future of this precious resource.
Clearly, this is a major challenge, and one that is complicated by a wide range of governance, institutional, social, environmental and political issues.
In its 2003 report, the World Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure made specific recommendations to address these challenges. One of the most significant was the recommendation to double all official and private capital flows to the water sector.In response to this, ADB formulated the Water Financing Program (WFP), which seeks to make water a core investment area for ADB. Under the WFP, ADB proposes to increase its water investments to well over $2 billion annually.
Launched at the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico, the WFP builds on ADB work in the first five years of implementing the Water for All policy. It includes a large pipeline of programmed water investments, a wide array of knowledge and awareness products, and regional cooperation services. Its focus will be on combining increased investments in water infrastructure with capacity building and private sector participation.The envisioned long-term impact of the WFP is a significant increase in the number of people in the Asia and Pacific region with access to reliable and affordable water services for safe water, sanitation, and productive livelihoods. Effective and sustainable integrated management of water resources in river basins for sustained economic growth and environmental improvement is also expected.
Specifically, WFP will result in five major outcomes:
WooChong Um
Director, Energy, Transport and Water Division (RSID)
E-mail: wcum@adb.org
Wouter Lincklaen Arriens
Lead Water Resources Specialist, ADB
E-Mail: water@adb.org
Ellen Pascua
Water Fund Manager
Email: epascua@adb.org
| © 2008 Asian Development Bank Privacy | Terms of Use |
 Top of page |
