WASHINGTON, D.C., September 22, 2026 — The World Bank Group is supporting Brazil’s Paraíba State to strengthen the foundations for water security and expand access to resilient water and sanitation services.
Through US$50 million in financing from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), part of the World Bank Group, the project targets two interconnected challenges: building the institutional and infrastructure foundations the state needs to manage water resources under a rapidly changing climate, and closing critical service gaps in urban and rural areas. Through improvements in water security, expanded and more reliable urban water services, and safely managed sanitation, the project is estimated to support the equivalent of approximately 54,000 more and better-paid jobs.
The project is the first phase of the Integrated Water Security Program for Northeast Brazil, a broader multi-phase initiative aimed at addressing water security challenges in one of the country’s most water-stressed regions. The Program will allow participating states to build on lessons learned, scale up successful approaches, and strengthen coordination, while improving water governance, expanding climate-resilient infrastructure, and enhancing water services to advance long-term water security.
Located in Brazil’s Northeast, Paraíba is among the country’s poorest states and lies largely within the semiarid “Polygon of Droughts”, one of the hottest semiarid regions in the world. Droughts, once occurring every four to six years, now strike approximately every two years, and nearly half the state’s population (47.4 percent) lives in poverty. Climate-driven water scarcity continues to deepen social and economic inequality, underscoring the urgency to build more resilient water systems and broaden access to services.
Key aspects of the project include:
Water Resource Management: Strengthening monitoring and early warning systems to improve responses to droughts and floods and support better decision-making across the state.
Urban Water and Sanitation Services: Rehabilitating and expanding the wastewater treatment plant serving the João Pessoa Metropolitan Region, home to approximately 1.4 million people, while improving the water supply network to reduce losses, currently estimated at 45 percent. The investments will also help address a sanitation gap, with sewage collection currently reaching only 65 percent of the metropolitan population.
