Drainage for Gain : Integrated Solutions to Drainage in Land and Water Management

In its drive to meet the United Nations
Millennium Development Goals, the World Bank issued, in
October 2002, new strategies for agricultural and rural
development, and water resources management. These
strategies both identified more and better drainage
investments as important to achieving some of the Millennium
Development Goals, notably poverty reduction and
environmental sustainability. The Bank subsequently
conducted a thorough review of all Bank projects having
drainage as the main intervention or as a component of
irrigation or flood control. In addition, analysis was
undertaken of the drainage situation and historical
development in six countries with large drainage portfolios.
This effort culminated in a technical study to develop a new
approach to drainage planning and management. The approach
identifies the role of all stakeholders in decisionmaking,
the institutional and management requirements, and options
for financing investment, operation, and maintenance of
drainage projects. This report is intended to set the stage
for movement toward integrated agricultural drainage
management through operationalization of the findings of the
following studies: 1) review of completed and active
drainage projects or components of projects in the
Bank's portfolio in the 1973-2002; 2) analysis of
drainage in six country case studies (Bangladesh, Egypt, the
Netherlands, Mexico, Pakistan, and Indonesia-appendix; and
3) a technical report, based mainly on the case studies,
that formulates a framework and tool for analysis and
planning of drainage interventions, within an integrated and
participatory approach.