Senior Water Specialist

Senior Water Specialist

**Senior Water Specialist**
Job #: req28266 Organization: World Bank Sector: Water/Sanitation Grade: GG Term Duration: 4 years 0 months Recruitment Type: International Recruitment Location: Singapore Required Language(s): English Preferred Language(s): Hindi Closing Date: 8/2/2024 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

**South Asia Region**

In the South Asia Region (SAR), the World Bank Group serves eight client countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), home to nearly 1.8 billion people. Clients range from large, rapidly growing, sophisticated middle-income countries to low-income (IDA) countries to fragile and small island and landlocked states. In FY24, the region delivered $10 billion in financing for client countries and a wide range of Advisory and Analytical Services (ASAs).

**The Sustainable Development (Planet) Practice Group**

The Sustainable Development (SD) or Planet Practice Group (PG) helps countries tackle their most complex challenges in the areas of Agriculture and Food, Climate Change, Environment, Natural Resources & Blue Economy, Social Sustainability and Inclusion, and Water.

**Water in the Global Development Context**

Water touches every aspect of development, and it links to nearly every Sustainable Development Goal. In its positive aspects, it drives economic growth, supports healthy ecosystems, and is essential for life itself. Water availability and the quality of water management impact whether poor girls are educated, whether cities are livable places, and whether growing industries or poor villages can withstand the impacts of floods or droughts.

But water resources globally are under unprecedented and increasing pressures, driven by population and economic growth, urbanization, land-use changes, declining quantities and qualities of ground and surface waters, and greater climate variability. With cross-cutting impacts on agriculture, education, energy, health, gender equity, and livelihood, water is at the center of economic and social development. Climate change impacts often manifest themselves through water, and sound water management lies at the heart of the resilience agenda. Successful water management requires accurate knowledge of the resource availability and an assessment of competing demands for its usage. Making optimal use of available water resources requires complex and sensitive economic, environmental and socio-political trade-offs. The need to plan for a more uncertain and more water-constrained future only increases the challenge of sustainable development of water resources. The world will not be able to meet the great development challenges of the 21st century - human development, livable cities, climate change, food security, energy security, and universal access to services - unless we ensure a water-secure world for all.

**The Water Program in SAR and SSAW1**

The SAR water program is delivered through two units, each led by a Practice Manager (PM). The two units, teams and PMs work closely together to deliver on the Water agenda in SAR; this includes deployment of staff across unit boundaries.

SAR Water Unit 1 (SSAW1), the hiring unit, has a 30-member team and covers the Water program in Bangladesh, Bhutan, and India. SSAW1's operations consist of an active portfolio of 15 projects with $3.08 billion in WB financing and a strong pipeline to be delivered in FY25 and FY 26.

The water strategy in SAR aligns with the World Bank's proposed Global Challenge Program on "Fast Tracking Water Security and Climate Adaptation." Accordingly, the SAR Water Program includes national as well as state programs in three major thematic pillars: i) universal access to safely managed water supply and sanitation; ii) climate-resilient irrigation and agriculture modernization; and iii) healthy rivers and water resource management for resilience.

India is the Bank's biggest IBRD client. The water program in India is the among Bank's largest country-level water programs globally. The current India water portfolio consists of 11 projects with commitments of $2.5 billion and a strong pipeline (of about $ 2 bill) for FY25 and FY26. The India program includes support for ambitious national level projects and programs such the National Groundwater Program, Dam Safety Improvement Program, the National Hydrology Project, and the Namami Gange Programme. It also includes State level projects on: a) urban and rural WSS (eg. Shimla utility reform, Uttarakhand peri-urban service delivery, Karnataka 24x7 urban water) and a Chennai City Partnership Program; b) irrigation (eg. major and minor irrigation projects in states such as West Bengal; and c) and flood and river basin management projects (in states such as Assam and Karnataka).

Bangladesh is and has been the Bank's biggest IDA client for several years; it is poised for graduation to IBRD. The Bank's water program is the Bangladesh is important and