Lithuania - Klaipeda Environmental Project and Siauliai Environmental Project |
Abstract:
The outcome of the Klaipeda project is rated as satisfactory. The outcome of Siauliai is rated as moderately satisfactory. Relevance of both projects was high given the need to clean up the Baltic Sea, Lithuania ' s drive for EU accession and harmonization with EU environmental standards, and dwindling public resources to subsidize inefficient utilities. The efficiency of both projects is rated modest. The financial rate of return is borderline for both projects (under 9 percent for Klaipeda and under 7 percent for Siauliai). However, the economic rate of return is likely to be higher if the environmental and tourism benefits could be monetized and included. OED rates sustainability as likely for both projects because of high stakeholder ownership linked to EU accession - but politicization of water tariffs means that financial sustainability at Siauliai will be difficult to achieve in the short term. Bank and borrower performance are rated satisfactory. There are three lessons from this experience: 1) Regionally sponsored environmental initiatives in response to inter-governmental action plans provide good opportunities for the Bank to exercise its comparative advantage in leveraging institutional reform through targeted lending. When linked with grant funding from bilateral development partners it provides a powerful and influential lobby for reform. 2) When extending loans for water supply and wastewater treatment to new client countries or sectors, the Bank could usefully start with minimal or emergency investments linked to an institutional development package that could be the start for a phased investment program. The more recently introduced Adaptable Program Loan would have been an ideal initial lending instrument in this case as it would have allowed time to develop refined criteria and arguments to facilitate Government agreement to more appropriate infrastructure designs and investments. 3) In water supply projects a combination of master meters and in-house meters is more effective at enabling revenue collection than in-house meters alone.
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Report Type:
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Project Performance Assessment Report |
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Date:
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06/23/2003 |
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Report #:
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26113 |
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Subject:
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Industry, Water and Sanitation |
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Country:
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Lithuania |
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Region:
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Europe And Central Asia |
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Language:
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English |
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Project ID:
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P008553, P035783 |
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Loan/Credit #:
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L3816, LP256, L3963, LP284 |
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