Select Committee on International Development Written Evidence


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

    (c)

    the development of clearer criteria for adjudication of transboundary issues.

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


 
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