World Bank provides fund boosting water programs

The World Bank Group announced Wednesday a significant boost in funding for water programs in India, the Niger River Basin, Morocco and Kenya to help tackle water challenges.

Laura Tuck, World Bank Group Vice President for Sustainable Development, warned at the climate talks of COP21 in Paris that in just 35 years, 40 percent of the global population will be living in water scarce countries, compared to 28 percent today.

World Bank will provide 500 million U.S. dollars to support India's one billion dollars program to improve management of its groundwater. India is the world's largest consumer of groundwater. The funding is planned to help with institutional reforms, build up capacity and develop infrastructure.

In the Niger Basin, nine countries have committed to a 3.1 billion dollars climate resilience investment plan over 10 years to build resilience. The first phase will cost 610 million dollars and will include financing from the Bank's fund for the poorest countries, the International Development Association (IDA).

In Morocco, which is susceptible to drought, World Bank is supporting the government's National Irrigation Saving Program, with a new 150 million dollars commitment. It will help poor and vulnerable farmers with more efficient irrigation technologies so they can cope with increasingly less available water and greater variability in water supplies.

In Mombasa, the coastal region of Kenya, water demands largely exceed supply, with climate variability, droughts and floods taking its toll on poor people. World Bank is funding a significant portion of the cost of a 500 million dollar government program to boost water security and build climate resilience. Enditem