|
|
| Environment Matters Current and Former Issues By Chapter |
| |
|
|
Environment Matters, 2003
 __
Welcome to the 2003 edition of Environment Matters, dedicated this year to Water and the Environment on the occasion of the 5th World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa. Environment Matters reviews the World Bank’s environmental programs in developing countries and its global engagement. It brings together external and internal viewpoints on the challenges ahead.
During the past century, while the world’s population tripled, the aggregate use of water has increased sixfold, with irrigation consuming over 70 percent of available water. These increases have come at high environmental costs: half of the world’s wetlands disappeared over the last century, with some rivers now no longer reaching the sea, and 20 percent of freshwater fish now endangered or extinct. If current trends continue, 4 billion people will live under conditions of severe water stress by 2025, particularly in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.
In response to these challenges, the World Bank’s Board of Directors has recently endorsed a new Water Resources Strategy as well as a new Infrastructure Action Plan in response to strong client-country demand for infrastructure. The Water Resources Strategy represents a balanced approach that promotes both effective management of water resources and responsible infrastructure development. A key challenge will be to assist countries in developing appropriate stocks of well-performing hydraulic infrastructure. The new Infrastructure Action Plan encompasses innovative ways of financing infrastructure projects, and will apply new and existing instruments more effectively, including a spectrum of public-private partnerships, and project financing at regional, national, and sub-national levels.
A sustainable path to development starts and ends with political will and good governance. Decisive action by governments, civil society, and the private sector at the national, regional, and global levels is needed in the coming years to fulfill the commitments endorsed by the international community and steer the water sector away from business-as-usual and toward a path of more environmentally and socially responsible growth.
-- Ian Johnson, Vice President of Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development; and Nemat Talaat Shafik, Vice President of Infrastructure (from Environment Matters 2003)
Use the 'Environment Matters, Annual Review' link in the left menu to access all published editions of Environment Matters (from 1996 to present) or to set up your free subscription.
|
|