Sudan Integrated Water Management Project (SIWM)

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Country overviewSudan faces formidable economic, social, and political challenges and its transitional government is mandated to carry out sweeping reforms. GDP has contracted with 2.5 percent in 2018-2019 and is estimated to have declined by 8 percentage points in 2020. The pandemic has pushed more families into poverty and 60 percent of its 42.8 million people are estimated to live below the poverty line. Sudan is at a critical juncture, presented with the opportunity for economic and social renewal. In March 26, 2021, Sudan cleared its arrears to IDA, enabling its full reengagement with the World Bank after nearly three decades. This has paved the way for accessing US$2 billion in IDA grants for poverty reduction and sustainable economic recovery as well as external debt relief. Sudan had to deal with record flooding in July-September 2020 affecting over 875,000 people. Sectoral and Institutional ContextClimate change has exacerbated the country’s social and economic challenges with increasing occurrence of floods and droughts. Increasing storage through small dams and haffirs supports resilience and water security for multiple users: farmers, pastoralists, and communities, however, flood management and small dam safety is poor. Critical challenges that hinder flood and water resources management are: (i) limited hydrological data; (ii) weak institutional coordination to manage floods and ensure safety of small dams; (iii) limited human resources; and (iv) lack of investments in technology and monitoring to improve forecasting, early warning and dissemination. Progress on access to basic water supply, sanitation, and hygiene services has been slow. Forty percent do not have access to basic water services, two third do not have access to basic sanitation, and three quarters do not have access to basic hygiene. The WSS sector faces serious challenges: (i) limited data on the status of WSS assets, performance; (ii) weak institutional coordination for investment planning, including for sanitation; (iii) limited human resources within WSS service providers; (iv) incomplete decentralization of WSS mandate to states; (v) lack of regulatory functions; and (vi) limited capital and recurrent investments for WSS services. Relationship to CPFSudan’s Country Engagement Note embraces a high risk, high reward approach to helping Sudan to stabilize its economy and unlock a long-term World Bank Group partnership to reduce poverty and promote shared prosperity. The project is fully aligned with Focus Area 2: Contributing to a renewed social contract, specifically objective 2.1 Strengthening the Government’s institutional capacity and accountability, and objective 2.3. Strengthening service delivery and resilience. It is also aligned with objective 2.2 Promoting economic opportunities, namely jobs within the WSS sector as well as economic opportunities associated with water supply services (including livestock). The project directly supports the Bank's Action Plan on Climate Change, by supporting increased resilience of people, and promoting water security in the face of progressive climate change. This is a Series of Projects (SOP) adopting a long-term approach to achieve transformational change, with the first project focusing on high priority investments, while building capacity and readiness for scaling-up investments through subsequent projects. Subsequent projects will entail both expansion of the geographic area (expanding the number of states), as well as diversifying the scope of the investments in various sub-sectors, while also supporting the development of the sector and its reform. Based on a multi-criteria assessments and prioritization process, six states have been selected for SOP-1 based on criteria such as lack of access to water supply services, demand for livestock water supplies, sanitation and health indicators, displaced people and migration pressures, and vulnerability to droughts and floods. Other factors were also considered including the importance for peace and stability, presence of other projects/resources, accessibility and a regional balance , The project encompasses four components:Component 1: Enhancing Water Security and Resilient Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) Services (US$ 170 m). This finances civil works, goods, consulting services, non-consulting services, training and workshops at state and locality (mahalia) level to rehabilitate and/or construct new water supply systems, multiple use water storage (small dams and haffirs), measures to improve performance and build capacity of State Water Corporations and local level service providers, social mobilization and communication for water, sanitation and hygiene behavior change, training and education programs on sanitation and hygiene, and WASH facilities in selected number of schools. The component consists of the following sub-components:• Subcomponent 1.1: Increasing access and resilience of water supply in urban areas (US$ 65 m)• Subcomponent 1.2: Increasing access and resilience of water supply in rural areas (US$ 100 m)• Subcomponent 1.3: Increasing access to sanitation and hygiene in rural areas (US$ 5 m)Subcomponent 1.1 will include water source development, transmission Iines and expansion of distribution networks, as well as decentralized water yards/kiosks in two towns (El Fashir, Port Sudan) as well as TA to develop climate resilient Performance Improvement Plans (PIP) and priority measures implementation, such as i) Non revenue water programs, ii) Energy efficiency programs, iii) Improving commercial and customer relations and citizen engagement iv) Asset management, financial management and accounting, v) Business continuity, water safety and resilience planning, and vi) HR development. Subcomponent 1.2 will finance climate resilient technological solutions appropriate to the context of the states and selected localities, including(North Darfur, South Darfur, Blue Nile, White Nile, Kasala), such as handpumps, mini water yards and water kiosks, multi-purpose haffirs and small dams, including water treatment plants for the domestic consumption, larger multi-village schemes. It will finance tools, equipment, and capacity building for guaranteed maintenance arrangements for rural water systems at locality and community level, including community outreach, private sector training, and supporting SWC oversight and technical support mechanisms to ensure sustainability of the systems. Subcomponent 1.3 finances the implementation costs of community led total sanitation approaches, behavior change communication campaigns, water safety and water quality surveillance, training and education on hygiene at community level and within schools, and WASH facilities in selected schools. Component 2: Building Institutions for WSS and Integrated Water Resources Management (US$ 23 m). This includes civil works, goods, consulting services, non-consulting services, training, and workshops to strengthen capacities of federal, state and local level institutions, develop enabling and regulatory frameworks, policies, guidelines, tools, instruments, and human resources. This component consists of the following subcomponents:• Subcomponent 2.1: Water and sanitation sector development and reform (US$ 13 m)• Subcomponent 2.2: Strengthening water resources management for resilience and water services (US$ 10 m, including US$ 3 million CIWA)Subcomponent 2.1 finances: i) technical assistance for policy, planning and legislative/normative documents in support of the sector reform, specifically economic regulatory framework; ii) technical assistance to SWCs for improved governance, tariff assessments and monitoring; iii) strengthening of a nationwide MIS on SWC and service provider performance; iv) implementation of a professional development program; iv) an investment readiness fund to support SWC in developing climate resilient performance improvement plans and the implementation of priori