22 January 2018: Through in-country projects, the World Bank is supporting efforts towards improved wastewater management and water supply. In one such project, the World Bank loaned US$120 million to the Government of India to improve water supply services in peri-urban areas of Uttarakhand state in northern India, helping ensure a minimum 16-hour water supply that will meet the government’s water quality standards. In Croatia, the Bank reports that two years after the completion of its six-year project, the practice of discharging untreated wastewater into the sea has been successfully eliminated, and water quality monitoring continues. The Bank has also cooperated with the Global Water Partnership (GWP) to organize a workshop on wastewater management in the Danube River Basin in November 2017, bringing together the European Commission, national government, and non-government stakeholders.

The India loan is meant to benefit more than 700,000 peri-urban residents of Uttarakhand state in the north of India. Sameer Kumar Khare, Ministry of Finance, India, highlighted that the project should free up women’s time for more economically and socially productive activities. Smita Misra, World Bank, drew attention to the project’s support towards meeting the state’s goal of universal water supply coverage in urban areas by 2030, and in rural areas by 2022. Misra and Khare both noted the development challenges inherent in the spread of peri-urban areas, including the challenge of delivering water services.

In Croatia, the country was unable to meet EU wastewater treatment standards when the World Bank project began in 2009. Tourism accounts for 20% of Croatia’s economy, and the industry was under threat due to pollution and degradation of its coastal waters. World Bank funds of US$87.5 million supported a six-year project on the Adriatic coast to address the problem of untreated sewage directly discharged into the sea. The Bank reported, in January 2018, that the project has eliminated the practice of discharging untreated wastewater, piloted innovative treatment solutions, strengthened relevant institutions, and improved seawater quality in the project area. Croatia also received funding from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to enable additional project activities and to prepare project applications and documentation to access European Union (EU) funding for further work.

In Romania, the Bank cooperated with the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) and other agencies to organize the first International Workshop on Wastewater Management in the Danube River Basin, which took place in Bucharest from 28-29 November 2017. The workshop was supported by the Danube Water Program, which is jointly implemented by GWP, the European Commission, the government’s ‘Romanian Waters’ programme, and the International Association of Water Supply Companies in the Danube River Catchment Area (IAWD), an association of water utilities and other stakeholders in the region.

The workshop presented various solutions to the problem of wastewater, based on country experiences. GWP Ukraine highlighted small-scale sanitation solutions in the form of dry ‘Ecosan’ toilets built for a rural school in the Poltava region of Ukraine in cooperation with the Technical University Hamburg. From Slovenia, stakeholders presented the results of a case study showing the advantages of decentralized wastewater treatment in mountainous areas with widely dispersed populations.[World Bank Press Release on Croatia Project] [Government of India Press Release on World Bank Uttarakhand Project] [GWP Press Release on Danube Workshop] [ICPDR Announcement of Danube Workshop] [IAWD Website]