Safeguards Compliance of Medium and Low Risk Category B: Water & Sanitation Projects in the Design Phase

The objective of these notes is to provide Bank staff with direction and assistance to ensure the compliance of low and medium risk Category B Water & Sanitation (W&S) projects with the Bank's environmental and social policies and safeguards during Preparation Phase. These notes are aimed to support Project Teams -particularly W&S specialists- when ESG staff members are not part of them, so they are able to ensure compliance with the Bank's policies and environmental safeguards during the preparation phase of their projects. In this context, it is supposed that most W&S projects are Sovereign Guaranteed (SG) -or public sector- operations; for Non Sovereign Guaranteed (NSG) -or private sector- operations, some adjustments should be made to these notes.