Memorandum submitted by The Centre for
Ecology and Hydrology (CEH)
The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) is
a research centre of the UK Natural Environment Research Council
(NERC) reporting to government through the Office of Science and
Technology. CEH incorporates the former Institute of Hydrology
established under Royal Charter in 1965 to provide independent
hydrological advice to the UK Government. It manages, with the
British Geological Survey, the UK National Water Archive of UK
surface and groundwater data. CEH undertakes fundamental, strategic
and applied research through the UK Science Budget, under commissions
from UK Government departments and agencies, the EU, international
organisations (UN agencies), foreign governments, development
banks and the private sector. CEH employs approximately 650 research
and support staff, and works in over 70 overseas countries, many
of these being developing countries with acute water stress and
environmental problems.
The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology welcomes
this opportunity to respond to the invitation from the International
Development Committee to comment upon issues relating to the Autumn
meeting of the World Bank Directors.
The World Bank is on the threshold of embarking
on a major increase in its lending to water supply projects[31].
This increase coincides with a significant change towards greater
emphasis upon infrastructure projects.[32],[33].
CEH supports both the increased emphasis upon water as a core
requirement in delivering the Millennium Development Goals, and
the Bank's basic contention that appropriate infrastructure is
vital in lifting people out of poverty. The Bank recognises some
of the challenges it will face with these twin objectives, and
intends to address these by issuing new policy and operational
guidance documents, retraining existing staff, recruiting expertise,
and increasing partnerships with other donors. However, the coincidence
of this increased funding and a change in direction create conditions
where significant problems are more likely to occur. Some of these
problems can be anticipated from several "fault lines"
which are already apparent within current Bank water activities.
Five of these are mentioned below:
1. DATA
Many Bank water projects will fail because of
unreliable hydrometric data
In respect to water resources assessment, the
foundation upon which water supply is built, the data situation
in Africa is a matter of grave concern—especially with large
increases in infrastructure investments being planned. There are
currently fewer hydrometric stations in all of Africa than there
are in the UK. If the hydrometric network for South Africa is
removed from the total Africa figure, then the paucity of reliable
river flow and groundwater data is appalling. Without reliable
data on what water resource is actually available then the sustainability
of every new infrastructure project, be it for water supply, irrigation,
hydropower, navigation, or to support ecosystems is compromised.
The shortage of reliable hydrometric data also compromises the
design of flood defence infrastructure projects and undermines
efforts to improve water related management systems and institutions.
The desire within the MDG that all countries should strive to
implement integrated water resource management strategies cannot
be achieved in the absence of reliable data.
(Technical note: A day may be a long time in
politics, but a year of hydrometric data is just the blinking
of an eye. Hydrometric data collected over a short period of time
is of very limited value since there is nothing with which to
compare it: only one summer-winter cycle is captured. The collection
of data will only start to bear fruit after a decade or more,
at which point normal inter-annual variability can be adequately
identified, whilst the potential effects of climate change can
only begin to be detected with record lengths of over 30 to 50
years.)
The African hydrometric network has been in
consistent decline for the last 30 years. A new approach is required
if the data problem is to be solved. In most cases, this will
not be a high tech solution. One person regularly reading a gauging
board is the most appropriate solution to the resources and capacity
of many African states. While the African situation is particularly
bad, similar data problems are compromising the Bank's water projects
in Central and SE Asia, Central and South America, and the Pacific.
Five years ago the World Bank took decisive
action in India. Prior to this water project after project had
failed because they were conceived, designed and built on the
basis of poor hydrometric data. The Bank acted to restrict its
financing of all Indian water projects until the hydrometry problem
was solved. The National Hydrology Project was born—Indian
states which historically had been close to war over water resources
were required to collaborate, appropriate technologies have been
installed, a new team of hydrometric specialists has been trained
and new projects are now being planned on the basis of far more
reliable quantitative data. This having been said, the challenge
for Indian hydrology is now to improve general availability of
river flow data.
Recommended UK action:
— Despite the pressure to immediately
increase financing of water infrastructure projects, the UK should
ensure that the Bank exercises the same resolve it displayed in
India. Financing projects should be conditional upon design being
based upon reliable hydrometric data. The nature of the African
problem may mitigate against a direct reproduction of the Indian
solution.
— The key to an African solution is
a commitment by the donor community to long-term support to hydrometry.
NEPAD offers the framework in which continental scale strategic
support can be provided. The UK should push for a coherent African
Hydrometry Strategy to undertake 10 year forward planning, of
assessment and design of networks, support operations, staff training,
secure and disseminate data, and develop analysis tools appropriate
to Africa.
2. MDG MONITORING
AND STATISTICS[34]
CEH agrees that progress towards the MDG's should
be monitored and we are, with DFID support, contributing to the
development of new indices of water poverty. We recognise the
challenges of establishing robust globally applicable standards
and the need for pragmatism in the face of limited local capacity.
However, we are concerned that in the Bank's and the responsible
UN agencies'[35]
drive to develop statistical tools, the fundamental problem of
the reliability of basic field data is not being addressed. Without
a reliable source of base data, the danger is that statistical
tools will deliver misleading results (rubbish in—rubbish
out) and be subject to manipulation.
Recommended UK action:
— The UK should ensure that the interpretation
of MDG monitoring and assessment of progress towards MDGs are
not built upon inadequate and unreliable data.
3. WATER SUPPLY
WITHIN THE
CONTEXT OF
WATER RESOURCES
The Bank has made significant progress in recent
years in undertaking more holistic assessments and design of proposed
projects. Further progress is still required. In the past, water
supply projects were rarely designed within the context of the
whole basin in which they occurred and scant consideration was
given to a project in terms of integrated water resource management
(IWRM). CEH welcomes the Bank's recognition of the interdependence
of WSS and water resource management. However, the Bank's financing
of sanitation projects has historically fallen well behind its
funding for water supply. This imbalance exacerbates the trend
towards increasing pollution of decreasing residual river flows.
Recommended UK action:
— Future Bank projects need to be planned
and assessed in terms of their contribution to, and impact upon,
the wider river basin within which they are set. The existence
of national IWRM plans is one of the Millennium Development Goals.
The Bank must adjust its project planning and assessment procedures
to ensure that new projects are developed in accordance to IWRM
principles and the respective national IWRM plan.
4. INTERNATIONAL
TRANSBOUNDARY WATER
AGREEMENTS
There has been enormous progress in the last
10 years in the development of international Conventions on the
transboundary management of watercourses. The Bank has played
an active part in this progress.[36]
The Bank has downgraded its Operational Directive 7.50 to Operational
Procedure status. OD7.50 required the approval of downstream riparian
states for upstream development. This had become a mechanism through
which wealthier downstream states were inequitably influencing
the approval of project funding in upstream states—to the
disadvantage of these poorer, less influential upstream states.
Under the new Operational Procedure downstream states are still
invited to comment, and where necessary the Bank will appoint
independent adjudicators to consider disagreements. With the planned
increase in funding for infrastructure projects of all types,
most of which will have some effect upon downstream states, adjudication
under Operational Procedure 7.50 needs to be monitored very carefully
to ensure that imbalances do not disadvantage poorer nations.
CEH supports and participates in the on-going
development of international transboundary water Conventions.
The UK must support actions which enable the "equitable"
sharing of water resources between riparian states, and particularly
the use of mechanisms as:
(a)
the rapid development of more specific and widely
accepted criteria for the quantification and assessment of downstream
impacts in both quantity and quality terms;
(b)
the use of clearly independent technical advisors,
with open reporting of adjudication cases; and
5. ENVIRONMENT
AND SERVICING
DEBTS
The World Bank has made immense progress over
the last 10 years in improving how it deals with environmental
issues through improved environmental assessment procedures and
the creation of specific funds such as the Global Environment
Fund. However, it is CEH's perception that considerable progress
is still required. The Bank needs to transform its concepts of
the environment, development and reducing poverty.
CEH is concerned that the prevailing mindset,
the ultimate decision-making criteria, is that environmental sustainability
is secondary to a project's ability to service debts. While we
agree that every Bank loan should be financially viable, there
needs to be a stronger mindset within the Bank that projects will
be more successful in the long term if they seek to ensure the
maximum possible environmental sustainability in the short term.
CEH's perception is that Bank staff regard the environment as
just an additional troublesome public relations issue—and
not an opportunity to improve project sustainability and hence
economic returns on the Bank's investments. In many developing
countries, natural ecosystems generally underpin a wide range
of livelihood activities and provide enormous economic benefit
to local communities; the challenge is to recognise and quantify
these benefits during the project planning stage.
The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) welcomes
this opportunity to contribute to the International Development
Committee's considerations of the role and activities of the World
Bank and the IMF.
October 2003
31 Implementing the World Bank Group Infrastructure
Action Plan; World Bank; DC2003-0015; September 2003. Back
32
Water Resources: Sector Strategy: Strategic Directions for
World Bank Engagement; World Bank; February 2003. Back
33
Bridging Troubled Waters: Assessing the World Bank Water Resources
Strategy; World Bank; 2002. Back
34
Global Monitoring of Policies and Actions for Achieving the
MDG and Related Outcomes: World Bank; DC2003-0013; September
2003. Back
35
Water for People, Water for Life; United Nations World
Water Development Report; 2003. Back
36
"Africa's International Rivers: An Economic Perspective";
World Bank; 2002. Back
| 
