4TH Conference of the Water Directors of the Euro-Med & Southeastern European countries

Relevancy of the financial resources in addressing main sector issues. EIB contribution

Bled, 10 – 11 December 2007

José Frade, European Investment Bank

Long catalogue of issues in the region’s water sector

Global: water scarcity, droughts & floods, impact of climate change (CC), desertification, population growth

Social: poverty, low affordability, gender inequity, lack of public awareness & education

Environmental: pollution and degradation

Political: poor governance & political support, low revenues

Managerial: poor performance of systems & allocation of water resources, fragmentation of water management

WILL THE CATALOGUE BE THE SAME IN THE YEAR 2020?

Key actions & solutions to address the issues Global: plan & design projects to adapt to CC, invest on

prevention (not reconstruction), allocate & manage water resources correctly, apply IWRM as a tool (not an objective)

Social: use better (target) grants & blend it with other funds, maximise efficiency to minimize costs & tariffs

Environmental: prioritise hot spots, invest with support of grants & loans to ensure cost recovery at Wtp levels (afford.)

Political: design and set institutions that could perform well, stop keeping tariffs as a political hostage – focus on efficiency

Managerial: give utilities all the resources required, reward performance & make it accountable (stop chicken & egg loop)

How can financial resources help

Global: support technical assistance to ensure proper plan & design of investment + allocation & management of resources

Social: donors should: i) coordinate to ensure better use of grants & blending with other funds; ii) fund water efficiency

Environmental: fund hot spots with the right blending of funds

Political: support TA for institutional restructuring, redesign of utilities and capacity building – if necessary through PPPs

Managerial: support TA for reorganisation, project preparation and implementation ensuring transfer of know-how

HOW COULD THIS CONFERENCE ENDORSE AND INTERNALISE IT?

The EIB contribution TA available under FEMIP (www.eib.org/med/index.htm) to support

objectives mentioned before. In-house expertise added value

The EIB has been and is keen in coordinating better with other donors on best use of TA and blending of funds

Strong support and involvement in Horizon 2020: recent study identified 77% of environmental investment needs for wastewater collection and treatment in the MED region

EIB is considering a pro-active support to water efficiency: i) resource allocation efficiency; ii) utility efficiency; iii) system efficiency; iv) user consumption efficiency (4 efficiency drivers)

WHAT ELSE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SUGGEST?

A FEW DATA ON EIB SUPPORT TO WATER SECTOR FEMIP Portfolio for TA to water & ww (+ waste): 2003 => 14 contracts (39% of total n°) for 5.2 M € (30%) 2004 => 9 contracts (28% of total n°) for 4.4 M € (20%) 2005 => 18 contracts* (72% of total n°) for 21 M € (75%)

* include 8 actions identified to be contracted

Horizon 2020 – identified projects for possible support: Wastewater: 24 (56% of total) amounting to 1.6 bn € (77%)

EIB lending in the water sector in the Partner Countries:

5%

26%

24%

45%

Enlargement C.* : EUR 320m for 10 projects

Russia, E. Eur, S.Caucasus : EUR 69m for 3 projects

Mediterranean P.C.: EUR 592m for 12 projects

ACP C. + RSA : EUR 351m for 9 projects

2002-2006: EUR 1.3bn

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION