Learning Repository

Nature-based Resilience: Confronting the triple planetary crisis of climate change, environmental pollution, and biodiversity loss using freshwater NbS

Publication

Released during UNFCCC COP27 and just ahead of COP 15.2 to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in late 2022, the report presents case study examples, rationale, and recommendations for maximizing synergies between national climate and biodiversity agendas to tackle the triple planetary crisis.

Political Economy of Water Management and Community Perceptions in the Pacific Island Countries

Publication

The purpose of this report is to contextualise the unique characteristics of the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) and identify some roadblocks to achieving universal access to clean water and sanitation.

The SafePani model: Delivering safe drinking water in schools and healthcare centres in Bangladesh

Publication

This Story of Change presents the SafePani model in Bangladesh which aims to reform existing institutional design and move towards a professional water service delivery model, with timely and independently verified performance metrics unlocking results-based funding, with a focus on schools and healthcare centres.

Towards Systemic Change in Urban Sanitation

Publication

This working paper outlines a 'whole-system approach' to urban sanitation by shifting the focus from building infrastructure or a project-driven implementation approach to providing and maintaining equitable and environmentally friendly services, championed and supported by the government and with sufficient resources allocated to ensure sustainability. The paper uses a step by-step approach to unravel and tackle the very complex circumstances surrounding the need for sanitation in urban areas, particularly in densely populated areas and to the less affluent sectors of society.

Urban WaterGuide: A guide for building sustainable and resilient cities

Publication

The Australian Government, Australian Water Partnership and the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities partnered to develop a framework to improve water outcomes in international cities and towns, based on Australia’s urban water experience. The result is the Urban WaterGuide, which covers water supply, sanitation, drainage, flooding, waterways and urban liveability, with a cross-cutting focus on gender equality and inclusion. The Guide helps decision makers who are responsible for water supply, sanitation, drainage, flood management and managing natural water bodies in cities and towns, by outlining a set of steps that can be adapted to any geography, and can be used at multiple scales.

Valuing Water: The Australian Perspective. Economic values of water under scarcity in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Publication

This is one in a series of four reports that examine how the diverse values placed on water have shaped the development and management of water resources in the Murray Darling River Basin. The report explores how changing values have affected the management of scarce water resources in the Murray-Darling River Basin.

Four main phases in water management are described, together with an exploration of how changing perceptions of value have shaped policy, objectives and outcomes over time.

This report shows how water management can be adjusted in response to changes in our understanding of value and how this understanding can lead to more transparent valuation processes. Although water policies in the Basin have supported an open and flexible economy, and resilient and adaptive businesses, significant challenges remain in the management of its environmental and cultural values.

Valuing Water: The Australian Perspective. Environmental values of water in the Murray-Darling Basin

Publication

This is one in a series of four reports that examine how the diverse values placed on water have shaped the development and management of water resources in the Murray Darling River Basin.

The report provides an overview of the Australian experience with environmental water reform and gives a detailed account of the current management regime for environmental water, showing how environmental water policy has developed in the context of the Basin’s unique set of social, economic, political, institutional and hydrological variables. Development of a policy framework that recognised the environment as a legitimate water user in the Basin has had to respond to major droughts, competing societal interests, a transboundary system (albeit within a single nation), political power contests and interests, and stakeholder groups with often divergent values.

The report provides lessons about generalisations that can be made from the successes and challenges in management of water for the environment in the Basin. These lessons are presented according to three themes: recognition and acceptance of environmental values, identification of environmental water policy options, and implementation of environmental water policy.

Valuing Water: The Australian Perspective. Lessons from the Murray-Darling Basin

Publication

This is one in a series of four reports that examine how the diverse values placed on water have shaped the development and management of water resources in the Murray Darling River Basin.

The report synthesises and elicits generalisable lessons from three case studies that tell the story of valuing water in the Basin through the primary lenses of economics, environment and Australia’s First Nations cultural values of water. The insights and generalisable lessons presented in this report are primarily intended for policy makers, practitioners, water managers, water engineers, civil society organisations and academics to inform and improve water management in other country contexts. These lessons are provided not as a roadmap for direct transfer elsewhere, but rather as framing and guidance that should be viewed through the lens of the hydrological, ecological, socioeconomic and political context of a specific basin or country.

This series of reports is the result of a collaborative effort between the World Bank and the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, with support from the Australian Water Partnership, to promote more equitable, transparent and effective management of water resources development. The report is also available to download from the World Bank.