The Inter-American Development Bank today approved a US $200 million loan for a water resources management reform program in Peru that seeks to increase the efficiency, equity and sustainability of water use.
The program will support measures designed to pave the way for the necessary structural, institutional, legal and policy reforms. These reforms will be implemented under five different components: macroeconomic framework, national water resources strategy, institutional framework, policy framework and decentralization.
“This operation will set the foundation for integrated water resource management and provide significant support to the Water for Everyone Program,” said Luis Víctor Traverso, IDB project team leader. “The Government of Perú has set water as a main priority and is developing the program Water for Everyone (Agua para Todos).”
The first component seeks to ensure that the macroeconomic environment is consistent with the program objectives.
The objective of the National Water Resources Strategy is to develop a consensus-based, multisector perspective on integrated water resource management analyses and proposals, in line with the program objectives.
The institutional framework component will support reform measures aimed at defining the new duties of the national authority to be placed in charge of sustainable water resource use; promote a water-use culture among users and other stakeholders by raising their awareness of the need to adopt rational and sustainable practices and attitudes in relation to water use; and make available an integrated, up-to-date pool of quantitative and qualitative information on water resources.
The objective of the policy framework component is to establish the technical, economic, financial, environmental and social measures needed for efficient integrated water resource management. The program will seek to support reforms for the establishment of water rights, the financing of water resource management and water quality.
The decentralization component seeks to jump-start reforms intended to create and strengthen water management capacities through the transfer of functions and areas of authority to regional governments. The program will support the transfer of major regional water infrastructure facilities, together with institutional functions and competencies relating to water resources, to the regional governments.
This 20-year loan will be executed by Peru’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance.