Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-The Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided Bangladesh $65 million loan to prevent land erosion, which is destroying livelihoods and causing huge socio-economic losses.
“The ADB assistance reflects the government’s policies and strategies, and includes the development and implementation of holistic planning strategies for the country’s main rivers as well as physical and nonphysical investments in the central part of the country,” said Kazuhiko Higuchi, the country director for ADB’s Bangladesh Resident Mission.
The loan is the first tranche of the ADB’s $255 million multitranche financing facility for the government’s Flood and Riverbank Erosion Risk Management Investment Program to reduce flood and riverbank erosion risks, and thereby improve livelihoods in the project areas, said a press release of the ADB.
Mohammad Mejbahuddin, secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD), and Kazuhiko Higuchi signed an agreement in connection with the loan on Thursday at a ceremony at ERD in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
The facility will help put in place riverbank protection structures and flood embankments along vulnerable portions of the Jamuna, Padma, and Ganges rivers—the country’s main waterways, the press release added.
It will also strengthen management of flood and erosion risks, as well as community-based flood disaster management capacity.
The first tranche loan of $65 million will target structural improvements in three high-priority areas.
The first tranche will provide infrastructure in urgent needs in three subproject areas, including riverbank protection structures at critically eroded sites.
It will also include non-structural measures in high priority sites of the selected three subprojects, and the area coverage will be extended during the subsequent tranches.
ADB will provide the remainder of the $255 million in subsequent loan tranches under the facility.
Low-lying Bangladesh is a vulnerable country in the world to floods and erosion, with up to 6,000 hectares of land swallowed up annually.
About 100,000 mostly poor rural people lose land, crops and even homes each year as a result.
BBN/ANS/AD-14Aug14-7:00pm (BST)
