This study examines how environmental issues have been addressed in the water sector in Brazil, within the context of activities of the Federal Government, generally, and those implemented under Bank sector operations, in particular. The core focus of the study lies in the management of water quality, as it affects both the users of raw water, and those who are primarily concerned with the disposal of wastewater. The report considers the following three sectoral areas concomitantly - water resources management, water supply and sanitation, and, the environment - thus limiting its review, and focus to those themes which are key to the over-arching issue of water quality. Water resources management in the country relied upon heavy investments in medium, and large scale projects that provided basic infrastructure for water uses. However, these have produced questionable impacts in terms of reducing poverty, and inequality. One of the reasons for this, has been the poor infrastructure management, which despite its importance, has been largely underestimated. While improvements in the utilization of existing infrastructure in the water sector remain critical, it needs to be complemented by incentives to both service providers, and water users. Moreover, low economic, environmental, and social returns from investments in the water sector, reflect the tendency to distract attention from the objectives in the design, and implementation of projects. Thus, an assessment of water quality goals is required, which should be based on systematic evaluations of the costs, and benefits of reaching alternative standards, and explicit social objectives.

The authors use the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey to examine the gender dimensions of public works. They use three rounds of a panel conducted in 1994-95 to explore the determinants of participation in, days worked, wages, and earnings from wage labor, food-for-work (FFW), and self-employment. Then they analyze public works data collected in 1997, together with program data collected in 2003. FFW operates in a similar fashion with other labor markets in Ethiopia where female participation is low. Gender differences are important in the participation decision, but operate differently in different types of labor markets. Better-educated women are more likely to participate in the wage labor market, while higher livestock holdings diminish participation more for women. Females with more schooling are also more likely to participate in FFW. Men’s and women’s participation in FFW and self-employment responds differently to household and community shocks. After controlling for selection in which gender plays an important role, gender disadvantages in the wage labor market and FFW are insignificant. Returns to schooling and height are consistently positive in both wage labor and FFW, suggesting returns to human capital investment, even in the low-skill labor markets of rural Ethiopia. Program characteristics significantly affect participation, with differential effects on men and women. Participation, days worked, wages, and earnings vary according to the type of project. Relative to infrastructure projects, water, social services, and other projects decrease participation probabilities. Distance has a strong negative effect on women’s participation relative to men’s.<BR>

Affordability of services is a determinant for people’s level of access to water. In this study, we analyse the effect of a programme aimed at improving the affordability of water services on users’ water consumption. The programme was implemented in 2012 by the local government of the city of Bogotá, Colombia, intending to provide an essential “lifeline” volume of water to poor households free of charge. Our assessment was carried out with secondary data and used difference-in-difference estimators in a panel data analysis of a two-period sample: 2011 and 2014. The unit of analysis was defined based on the city’s administrative divisions and the socio-economic stratification of residences. Over the period analysed, beneficiaries’ household consumption increased, reaching per capita consumption levels closer to those of the upper strata of users. Results suggest that the programme contributes to increased consumption and equity among users.

Climate change is at the top of the development agenda in Central America. This region, together with the Caribbean, is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change in Latin America. Climate change is manifesting itself through higher average temperatures and more frequent droughts that result in higher water stress, and through the rising frequency of extreme weather events such as tropical storms, hurricanes, floods and landslides, all of which pose significant challenges in the rural water supply and sanitation sector. The paper starts with a review of the historic data on temperature and precipitation trends in Central America and particularly at the regional level in Nicaragua. The data reveal a clear trend of the growing climate variability, increased water stress for crops, and greater frequency of extreme weather events. The rising intensity and frequency of ex-treme weather events is among the most critical risks to the region's development agenda, and they translate into high economic losses. This paper examines the impacts and implications of potential climate change on water resources in Nicaragua and makes key recommendations to integrate climate change and rural water supply and sanitation policies and programs in a way that increase resilience to current and future climate conditions. | 0

Between 1996 and 2005, natural catastrophic events had an estimated cost of US$575.2 billion world-wide. In particular, it has been observed that developing countries are relatively more affected by such events, since its gross domestic product (GDP) have showed sharper declines than developed countries' ratios. On August 15, 2007, an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale shook the southern part of the central coast of Peru, with devastating consequences. Given the magnitude of the damage caused, one wonders how much less the cost of rehabilitating water and sanitation systems might have been if public investment projects and management of urban utilities (companies in charge of the water and sanitation provision), had incorporated disaster risk reduction measures. For this reason, and because this is a key public sector service for the wellbeing of population, the World Bank's water and sanitation program commissioned Apoyo Consultoria S.A.C. to conduct a research on the water and sanitation sector in order to attend the following inquiry: how much unpreparedness cost to the sector providing water and sanitation services? In other words, in economic terms, what will have been the gain to society or the reconstruction savings if risk prevention measures had been included in the management of services in the sector proposed for the analysis?

O presente estudo objetivou identificar os perigos associados ao consumo de água proveniente de soluções individuais de abastecimento no município de Viçosa MG e especificar a compreensão popular dos consumidores sobre o que é água com qualidade. Foram inspecionadas 93 soluções individuais, todas localizadas na área urbana do município, incorporando princípios de avaliação de risco, tais como a identificação de perigos utilizando formulário padronizado pelo Ministério da Saúde. Constatou-se a presença de proteção sanitária em 98,9% dos poços o que não garante a qualidade da água do manancial ao se considerar a existência de focos de contaminação e poluição no entorno de grande parte das soluções individuais (55,9%). O monitoramento da qualidade da água de 25 poços por seis meses, considerando parâmetro de potabilidade de acordo com o método do substrato definido COLILERT/Quanti-Tray 2000, indicou presença de coliformes totais em todas as soluções, variando de 83,3% a 100%, sendo que em 88% das soluções todas as amostras apresentaram resultado positivo; contaminação por E. coli, variou de não detectado a 100% das amostras analisadas sendo que em 80% das soluções esses indicador foi detectado, o que caracteriza a água como imprópria para consumo uma vez que é um indício de contaminação de origem fecal. Por meio de questionário, verificou-se que a totalidade dos domicílios inspecionados tem acesso à rede pública de abastecimento, porém apenas 24,7% estão conectados; 65,6% dos domicílios não estão conectados e 9,7% desligaram a conexão, sendo o preço/evitar despesas o motivo mais apresentado (23,7%). Em 83,9% dos domicílios a água era consumida diretamente, porém em apenas 26% era realizada desinfecção da água enquanto no restante dos domicílios a água é consumida sem nenhum tratamento o que caracteriza risco à população consumidora. Em relação aos usuários deste tipo de fonte, encontrou-se com maior freqüência famílias com renda variando entre 1 e 2 salário mínimos (49,5%) e baixa escolaridade do chefe de família. Para entender as razões que levam pessoas a decidir pelo consumo da água proveniente de poços, foi realizado estudo qualitativo, por meio de entrevista semi-estruturada, que demonstrou a existência de representações da água da solução individual como limpa e de qualidade inquestionável. A relação entre as características físicas da água, seu uso e questões ligadas ao seu acesso fazem parte de relações culturais, históricas e econômicas que constroem o seu significado. | This study aimed to identify the hazards associated with consumption of water from individual solutions of supply in Viçosa - MG, and specify the popular understanding of consumers about what is water quality. Were inspected 93 individual solutions, all located in urban area, incorporating principles of risk assessment such as hazard identification using a standardized form by the Ministry of Health. Found the presence of sanitary protection in 98.9% of the wells what does not guarantee the water quality of the source when considering the existence of pockets of contamination and pollution in the vicinity of most individual solutions (55.9%). The monitoring of water quality of 25 wells for six months, for potability parameter according to the defined substrate method Colilert / Quanti-Tray 2000 indicated the presence of total coliforms in all solutions, ranging from 83.3% to 100% and 88% of solutions all samples were positive; contamination by E. coli, ranged from "not detected" to 100% of samples in which 80% of solutions this indicator was detected, which characterizes the water as unfit for consumption because it is an indication of contamination of fecal origin. Through the questionnaire, it was found that all the households surveyed have access to public water supply, but only 24.7% are connected; 65.6% of households are not connected and 9.7% turned off the connection, and price / avoid spending the reason given more frequently (23.7%). In 83.9% of households the water was consumed directly, but only in 26% the water disinfection was carried out while in in other household the water is consumed without any treatment characterizing risk to the consumer population. Regarding users of this type of source, was found more frequently families with incomes ranging between one and two minimum wages (49.5%) and low education of household head. To understand the reasons why people decide for household water from wells, qualitative study was conducted through semi-structured interview, which revealed the existence of representations of the individual solution water as clean and unquestionable quality. The relationship between the physical characteristics of water, their use and issues relating to your access is part of cultural, historical and economic construct their meaning.

The characteristics of groundwater systems and groundwater contamination in Finland, Norway and Iceland are presented, as they relate to outbreaks of disease. Disparities among the Nordic countries in the approach to providing safe drinking water from groundwater are discussed, and recommendations are given for the future. Groundwater recharge is typically high in autumn or winter months or after snowmelt in the coldest regions. Most inland aquifers are unconfined and therefore vulnerable to pollution, but they are often without much anthropogenic influence and the water quality is good. In coastal zones, previously emplaced marine sediments may confine and protect aquifers to some extent. However, the water quality in these aquifers is highly variable, as the coastal regions are also most influenced by agriculture, sea-water intrusion and urban settlements resulting in challenging conditions for water abstraction and supply. Groundwater is typically extracted from Quaternary deposits for small and medium municipalities, from bedrock for single households, and from surface water for the largest cities, except for Iceland, which relies almost entirely on groundwater for public supply. Managed aquifer recharge, with or without prior water treatment, is widely used in Finland to extend present groundwater resources. Especially at small utilities, groundwater is often supplied without treatment. Despite generally good water quality, microbial contamination has occurred, principally by norovirus and Campylobacter, with larger outbreaks resulting from sewage contamination, cross-connections into drinking water supplies, heavy rainfall events, and ingress of polluted surface water to groundwater.

During the past decade countries in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region have lifted more than 50 million people out of poverty, yet half of the rural population in the region still lacks access to sanitation and approximately 20 percent to drinking water. In January 2012, policy makers, scholars, and practitioners from nine LAC countries came together in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to explore the opportunities and challenges of integrating in a more systematic and sustainable way the promotion of hygiene and sanitation behavioral change into water and sanitation investments. During the conference in Santo Domingo, it became evident that a common understanding is currently emerging from most countries in the sense that infrastructure by itself will not solve the global problems of inadequate access to improved sanitation and potable water, unless people adopt new behaviors. Therefore, there is a need to spread learning on best practices to implement cost effective water, sanitation and hygiene models, which bring about change at home and in the community at scale. This paper highlights key issues that arose in presentations and group discussions during the conference, which, can lead to substantial improvements in the provision of a multi-sector approach to hindering sustainable water and sanitation services for all.

Groundwater resources are crucial in sustaining agro-ecosystems and ensuring food security in many parts of the world, including Pakistan. However, the sustainability of groundwater resources is subject to a number of challenges, including over-extraction, deterioration in quality, and vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and population growth. Given the current state of groundwater resources in Pakistan, policymakers seek to manage groundwater resources by limiting groundwater extraction. To achieve this goal on a national scale, it is important to understand the determinants of the decisions made by local farmers in respect of tube-well adoption. This study investigates smallholder farmers’ decisions to adopt tube-well technology in the face of dwindling groundwater resources and falling water tables. Analysis is based on a cross-sectional survey of 200 rural households from the arid to semi-arid predominantly groundwater-irrigated plains of the Punjab province, Pakistan. It is found that farmers will adopt tube-well technology in pursuit of reliable irrigation water supplies to hedge against production risks but not against the risk associated with unfavourable extreme events (downside risk) such as total crop failure. This suggests that the adoption decision is influenced by the expected long-term rather than the short-term benefits. This paper draws attention to the need to regulate groundwater resource exploitation by requiring the use of tube-well technology to be accompanied by irrigation water-efficient techniques and technologies.