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Doubling Investments in Five Years:
Candid Answers to WFP Questions

By Ma. Christina Dueñas
Water Knowledge and Communications Coordinator, ADB

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has made an unprecedented commitment: double investments and accelerate actions in water to get double the results.

Over the next 4 years and through its Water Financing Program (WFP) 2006-2010, ADB intends to catalyze some $20 billion water investments in Asia-Pacific to ensure that

200 million gain sustainable access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation;
100 million people face reduced risks to floods;
40 million people have more productive irrigation and drainage services;
integrated water resources management is introduced in 25 river basins; and
countries improve their water governance.

Wouter Lincklaen Arriens, ADB Lead Water Resources Specialist, talks candidly about the thinking behind this new program.

Why develop the WFP now?

We need more investments if we want to resolve water problems. But financing alone is not enough. We need to make sure that these new investments work better and deliver results where they count the most—on the ground.

Unfortunately, despite increasing need for water interventions, ADB’s investment portfolio for 2000-2004 dropped to $4 billion, a dramatic reduction from the $6.3 billion figure of 1995-1999. There is scope for ADB to be more responsive to the increasing demand for water.

Is the WFP just about financing?

No, it isn’t. Doubling investments is the means to an end, not the end itself.

WFP is about providing water and sanitation services, reducing people’s exposure to flood damage, improving irrigation and drainage, and introducing sustainable water resource management practices.

It is also about taking bold, new steps to deliver these results. WFP adopts a comprehensive strategy for each investment—combining improvements in infrastructure with promoting reforms, building institutional capacity, and forging strategic partnerships.

Finally, WFP applies new lenses for analyzing water projects—rural water, urban water, and basin water. Rural water focuses on water supply, sanitation and irrigation in rural areas. Urban water focuses on water supply and sanitation in cities. Basin water covers integrated water resources management (IWRM), hydropower, flood management, wetlands conservation, and more.

Why focus on rural, urban, and basin water?


	Talking with regional water specialists in Cambodia as part of the review of ADB's water policy implementation

The linkages are clear. In Pakistan’s rural areas, household water supply and pumped irrigation water often come from the same aquifer. Upstream of Jakarta in Indonesia, industrial pollution corrupts the water supply of downstream city dwellers.

There are so many examples of this interconnectivity but we often miss them because we view water through the lenses of separate subsectors—water supply, irrigation, flood management, and others. If we use rural water, urban water and basin water as our lenses, we can see the linkages more explicitly. And when we do, we’ll have a better chance of looking across institutional boundaries and addressing the opportunities and consequences of our project interventions.

How would countries benefit from the WFP?

For sure, client countries can count on improving their service delivery and water quality. In fact, WFP plans to enable countries to go beyond the MDG targets and achieve more extensive coverage.

But they can also access a number of in-country and regional initiatives that provide more rapid assistance. Through the new Water Financing Partnership Facility, which aims to raise $100 million in grants, ADB will support governments, apex bodies, river basin organizations, water utilities, and communities pursue reforms and innovations, build their capacity, forge strategic alliances, monitor the results of their investments, and more.

What will help WFP to succeed?

Even when WFP was just being developed, it already succeeded in directing more attention to ADB’s water operations. The result was a significantly increased 2006-2008 pipeline of over $7 billion, with good indications that this will further increase.

Beyond that, we can already observe several indicators on the readiness of ADB and its client countries for a program like the WFP. For starters, senior levels in governments now accept that a more integrated and sustainable approach to water resources management is essential. And ADB has just introduced a range of new financing modalities to address constraints raised by its clients, such as the multitranche financing facility, local-currency financing, subsovereign lending, and more. Add to that the fact that ADB now has greater success in delivering project interventions to specific target groups, particularly the urban and rural poor. We think that the conditions for the success of WFP are now moving into place.

What changes can we expect in ADB's water programming?


	At a press interview during the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico

The next 4 years will be exciting times for water in ADB. One of the main challenges will be to increase investment in sanitation and wastewater treatment to mirror the investments made in water supply. Given the current spotlight on renewable energy, we can also expect a significant increase in investment demand for hydropower development. That will require closer coordination as part of IWRM.

In addition, ADB will need to continue assisting its clients to introduce enabling conditions and build the capacity of national water apex bodies, river basin organizations, and utilities.

WFP will offer a range of interventions but the ultimate test will be in delivering the desired results for the community, country, and regional stakeholders concerned.