Is the urban water and sanitation sector frozen in time?

Blog by Caroline van den Berg, World Bank Group

If time travel were possible, and an engineer from the 1860s could travel in time to 2019, sewage_pipes_under_london_19th_century_wellcome_l0000616he (the first female engineer had not graduated yet) would not recognize much of the technology we have today.  Personal computers, cell phones, cars, planes, and antibiotics would probably be unfathomable to him.   But he would definitely recognize our current piped water and sanitation (WSS) infrastructure, as it looks and operates almost exactly the same as it did 150 years ago.  Certainly, there have been significant improvements in the sector, especially in water and wastewater treatment, but the principles on which the piped WSS technology is based have not seen any fundamental changes since the 1860s, when it was (re)introduced on a large scale.

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eC2: Development of a Study on the Establishment of the Klokot Spring Cross-Border Sanitary Protection Zones

Deadline: 15-Nov-2018 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)

A Study on the Spring Sanitary Protection Zones is needed to mitigate against the sourcesbalkans of pollution and the World Bank (the Bank) has been requested by the relevant Governments to carry it out. To do so, in compliance with the requirements of the eligible BETF and RETF activities, the Bank will hire a consultant company (the Consultant) to prepare the Study while monitoring and coordinating the activities of the latter with those carried out by the beneficiary countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, and their consultants, including a Steering Board and a Study Implementation Team. The consultant will prepare the Study to help the beneficiary countries identify the effective sanitary protection measures for the springs to prevent groundwater pollution (the quantitative and qualitative features), and to share with them relevant recommendations for the monitoring of the groundwater in the relevant areas in the future, with the aim of allowing a timely identification of the eventual water quality deterioration in the catchment area.

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eConsultant2:Assessment of the financial sustainability of the water supply and sanitation (WSS) sector in Haiti

Deadline: 08-Mar-2016 at 11:59:59 PM (Eastern Time – Washington D.C.)

In this context,the WB will hire a consulting Firm to develop:
1. An assessment of the financial sustainability of WSS service providers in urban areas and small towns;Waste water plant
2. A proposal for a set of ambitious but achievable goals to improve the financial performance of WSS service providers in the medium and long term, indicating and costing the required lines of action to support them in achieving said goals;
3. An assessment of the financial sustainability – in the medium and long term of the WSS sector institutional structure in place (both the central & deconcentrated level)

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