The growth and impacts of plastic pollution have emerged as a major environmental challenge globally. Plastic pollution has a wide range of impacts on public health, ecosystems, biodiversity, and economies and can occur during each stage of the plastic lifecycle, from extraction of raw...

The Sustainable Development Network (SDN) calls for elevating the environment into upstream processes such as policy, programmatic, and investment dialogue. In its 2002 environment strategy, the Bank committed to use strategic environmental assessments (SEAs), an environmental planning tool for...

Marine plastic pollution is threatening the potential of the blue economy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Recognizing the urgent need to address this problem, the governments of Morocco and Tunisia decided to partner with the World Bank to address marine plastic pollution by...

Water -- the resource itself as well as the irrigation and water supply services derived from it is important for every country. It is fundamental to human health, wellbeing, productivity, and livelihoods. It is also essential for the long-term sustainability of ecosystems. Here, in the Middle...

Agricultural water management is a vital practice in ensuring reduction, and environmental protection. After decades of successfully expanding irrigation and improving productivity, farmers and managers face an emerging crisis in the form of poorly performing irrigation schemes, slow...

Water is everyone's business. Beside a necessity for living, water has implications on public health and, most importantly, can cause social conflicts. This is because water is limited, is difficult to control, and can easily be polluted. The Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) process...

This report identifies opportunities and challenges for local financing of water utilities in Peru and suggests recommendations for removing barriers and creating incentives for scaling-up local financing to local water utilities. It was developed with an understanding that meeting the...

The country water resources assistance strategy for Zambia provides an analysis of the role of water in the economy and identifies the specific challenges, development opportunities and policies which inform an agreed framework for priority areas of assistance. Zambia lies entirely within the...

This report looks at, and beyond, the management hydrological variability to interventions aimed at decreasing the vulnerability of the economy to these shocks. It helps clarify linkages between the country's economic performance and its water resources endowment and management. It then uses...

The challenges facing the water sector in Egypt are enormous and require the mobilization of all resources and the management of these resources in an integrated manner. Changes in the way water resources are currently allocated and managed are inevitable. Accordingly, a National Water Resources...