WB in pact with K'taka for $150 mn loan

The World Bank has sanctioned a loan of $150 million to Karnataka for taking up a rural water supply project in 11 districts of north Karnataka. An agreement to this effect was signed by representatives of the World Bank, Centre, and Karnataka, here on Saturday.

The additional finance for the Karnataka Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (KRWSS) is part of a long-term programme of World Bank

support to the government of Karnataka’s efforts to increase rural communities’ access to improved and sustainable drinking water and sanitation services. The additional finance of $150 million will help expand the ongoing KRWSS Project to another 1,650 villages, allowing an additional four million people to get access to efficient and reliable water supply.

The project will benefit people in the districts of Belgaum, Bidar, Bijapur, Dharwad, Gadag, Gulbarga, Koppal, Raichur and Uttara Kannada. The project will be implemented over a period of three years from July 2010 to June 2012.

Under the project, schemes are being designed to provide sustainable supply of water to the affected habitations and those having less than 30 litres per capita per day (LPCD) of water supply. It is proposed to provide 55 LPCD of water by designing schemes based on surface sources.

As part of the project, works for rejuvenation of ground water, are also being undertaken.

The project has already brought clean drinking water to about five million people, taking the number of households having private water supply connections from 12 to 47 per cent in the project villages. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 816 crore. About 85 per cent of the project will be met from International Development Association (IDA) credit as World Bank assistance. The state government and community will meet the remaining 15 per cent.

The credit is from the IDA, the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm, which provides interest-free loans with 35 years to mature and a 10-year-grace period. The highlight of the project is that villages, habitations are expected to own the project and take over operation and maintenance of the scheme after completion.