Water Security Diagnostic and Future Outlook Republic of Moldova MINISTERUL AGRICULTURII, DEZVOLTĂRII REGIONALE ŞI MEDIULUI AL REPUBLICII MOLDOVA Water Security Diagnostic and Future Outlook Republic of Moldova A Work in Progress Mr. Andrian Delinschi, Head of Integrated Water Resources Management and Policy Department Ms. Maria Prisacari, Head of Regional Policies Department, North Regional Development Agency Ms. Susanna Smets, Sr. Water Supply and Sanitation Specialist, World Bank Danube Water Conference – May 21, 2019 Vienna - Austria

MINISTERUL AGRICULTURII, DEZVOLTĂRII REGIONALE ŞI MEDIULUI Water Security is about optimizing the benefits from water for the people, environment, economy Sustaining and leveraging water resources Delivering water services Building resilience and managing risks World Bank and Republic of Moldova embarked on joint assessment and stakeholder process: “Water Security Diagnostic and Future Outlook” Objective is to inform decision-makers about possible water development pathways and provide evidence to identify key water security challenges to guide policy reforms to help prioritize investment decisions and trade-offs Build Resilience

MINISTERUL AGRICULTURII, DEZVOLTĂRII REGIONALE ŞI MEDIULUI Moldova context 3.55 m people, 55 percent rural and declining Moderate growth, relatively high poverty of 11 percent EU Accession Agreement (2016) shapes water policy Government prioritizes transport, higher education, and justice reform, as well as infrastructure and water Moldova is highly dependent on surface water resources from transboundary Prut and Nistru rivers 90 percent of renewable water resource stem from surface water and 10 percent from groundwater Total annual renewable water resources (> 3,000 m3/cap/yr) not within physical scarcity Storage capacity is limited (728 m3/cap) Climate change and upstream development of water use may increase water stress

MINISTERUL AGRICULTURII, DEZVOLTĂRII REGIONALE ŞI MEDIULUI Why does Water Security Matter? Sustaining and Leveraging Water Resources: Cost of droughts every 5-7 years Agriculture a corner stone of the rural economy Irrigated area declined tenfold (35,000ha now)… uptake by farmers not optimal Export of vegetable products is a quarter of all exports…still reliant on low-value crops Water management reforms are in progress Is there water available and an economic justification to expand and modernize irrigation services, required for high-value agriculture?

MINISTERUL AGRICULTURII, DEZVOLTĂRII REGIONALE ŞI MEDIULUI Why does Water Security Matter? Building Resilience: Annual Flood Risk Estimated at Euro 56 million 2010 flood damages 0.2 percent of GDP Need to protect environmental flows, water quality and watersheds Protect habitats and landscapes for nature-based tourism Functions for River Basin Management including drought and flood management and water quality protection underfunded What are the risks associated with changing surface water availability for urban, agriculture and environmental water uses? EIB Flood Risk Assessment (2016)

MINISTERUL AGRICULTURII, DEZVOLTĂRII REGIONALE ŞI MEDIULUI Why does Water Security Matter? Delivering Services: Inequality in access to centralized drinking water between urban (90%) and rural (32%) Rural areas with low access to flush toilets (13%) and public sewer (1%) Firm productivity hindered by water outrages and reliability Only 1.6% of all government spending for WSS sector; less than 10 euro/cap/yr. Access to public drinking water services (Census, 2013, NBS) Are there competing water demands among municipal and other uses? How to expand services given limited fiscal space and budgets?

MINISTERUL AGRICULTURII, DEZVOLTĂRII REGIONALE ŞI MEDIULUI A phased approach is followed with stakeholder engagement of government and development partners I: Mapping of water-related challenges for social, economic and environmental outcomes (Jan-Mar 2019) II: Developing a National Water Balance Model to understand Water Availability and Demands (WEAP model) (Feb-May 2019) III: Developing “Water Futures” and developing set of policy measures and investment scenarios; discuss priorities for future (May-Aug 2019) IV: Implementation Analysis: how to finance and implement priority measures (after September 2019)

Building the WEAP model to investigate scenarios of water availability MINISTERUL AGRICULTURII, DEZVOLTĂRII REGIONALE ŞI MEDIULUI 28 catchment scale – for data and estimating water balance 10 basin scale – to analyze results % of years with annual demand met Building the WEAP model to investigate scenarios of water availability Preliminary results show that water endowments are not the major constraints - except for some basins – Infrastructure and governance equally important for water security

Next Step: Development and Analysis for Water Future Scenarios Urban Development Acceleration Rural and Agri-business Development Green and inclusive development Urban development: increased urban migration, ICT sector and industrial development, stop to outward migration due to better job prospects in urban cities, protection of urban towns from floods, improving water and waste water services in towns and regional development centres Rural and agri business: stop rural-urban migration; providing better services in rural areas, improve market competitiveness and access to export markets for agri products, higher value agriculture, irrigation expansion and reform, high intensity cropping and incentives for commercial farming, better market linkages; agri-tourism Greena nd inclusive development: nature based solutions for flood protection, watershed protection, curbing pollution (wastewater), and financing equal access for rural areas, strengthening basin management and stakeholder engagement, development of nature-based tourism Different water futures, requiring different levels and type of investments, policy measures, both within and outside of the water sector

MINISTERUL AGRICULTURII, DEZVOLTĂRII REGIONALE ŞI MEDIULUI Thank You