GLOBAL: Governance reforms and private sector participation for mainstreaming unconventional water resources in water scarce countries

The objective of the proposed Program is to improve the enabling environment for mainstreaming unconventional resources (desalination and reuse) in the water mix to increase water security and resilience and obtain greater value-for-money from desalination and reuse operations in client countries.

To achieve this goal, the program will develop the existing body of knowledge on the economics, governance and management of desalination and wastewater reuse, by: (i) developing a comparative critical analysis of the policy and regulatory framework of desalination and reuse in selected country clients, benchmarking them against the framework in place in selected OECD countries; (ii) prepare case studies presenting different institutional structures in place for mainstreaming desal and reuse at sector scale, as well as management models employed to provide reuse and sanitation services for poor and remote communities in arid areas where no other alternative source of water may be available; and (iii) developing guidelines and toolkits for the economic appraisal (least cost alternative selection and cost-benefit analysis) of desalination and reuse initiatives and for the selection of the appropriate delivery model and commercial and financial structures for desal and reuse infrastructure projects.