Improving the efficiency of water utilities and reducing water losses are becoming top priorities in Asia, with its often-limited water resources and rapidly increasing urban population. This publication provides an up-to-date introduction to the subject matter, highlights the complexity of managing non-revenue water (NRW), offers guidance on NRW assessment, and recommends appropriate performance indicators. It is, to a large extent, based on th ...
"Carbon intensity" is the traditional measure of an economy's carbon performance. However, it is incapable of capturing the multidimensional features of an economy's carbon performance, particularly when increased emissions have causes other than poor emitting technology, such as changes in the energy mix or the substitution of energy for labor. Hence, it can sometimes be a poor yardstick for comparing countries with different nat ...
A 1993 Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)-funded study reported that water and sanitation problems in South Tarawa, Kiribati had become critical and needed to be addressed in «as comprehensive a manner as possible.» This led to a series of interventions including several Asian Development Bank (ADB)-sponsored projects which focused on the community participation component that the Government of Kiribati had come to recogniz ...
The Water Safety Plan (WSP) is about protecting water quality from catchment to the tap. Promoted by the World Health Organization, WSP has changed the way water supply systems are managed. This report documents the pilot application of the guidance note for mainstreaming WSP in water projects supported by the Asian Development Bank as piloted in the Chongqing Municipality in the People's Republic of China. The guidance note seeks to promot ...
The rapid pace of growth, the sectoral structure of the economy, the sources of energy used, and increased urbanization are four large-scale drivers behind the complex environmental agenda of the People's Republic of China (PRC). To improve the quality of the ambient environment, the recently released Macro Strategic Research Report on the PRC's Environment recognized the need for changing the momentum of the four driving forces, and i ...
This publication presents the results of a 2-year effort to update environmental assessment in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The research was a collaborative effort involving the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the National Development and Reform Commission, and numerous other technical and research institutions in the PRC. Based on this research and extensive consultations, ADB proposes a wid ...
Under the joint initiative of the Government of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), «Mainstreaming PPPs in India,» ADB supports state public–private partnership (PPP) cells in several challenging sectors in state-specific activities to arrive at possible PPP structures. In Maharashtra, ADB supported the Department of Urban Development and Water Supply and Sanitation to develop possible PPP structures in the water supply and sanitation se ...
Against a backdrop of increasing emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that are responsible for global climate change, the South Asia developing member countries (DMCs) of the Asian Development Bank have been witnessing a steady rise in fossil fuels and energy consumption and demand, keeping pace with their economic growth. The region's major challenge is how to achieve sustained and rapid economic growth for reducing poverty while reducing t ...
This regional study includes the People's Republic of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Mongolia and examines how strategies for adapting to climate change up to 2050 can be combined with measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in East Asia. Besides discussing climate model results for costs of adaptation in infrastructure, coastal protection, and agriculture, the study estimates costs for sector-specific mitigation options and t ...
