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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– The World Bank (WB) has approved $47.50 million more to improve water, sanitation, and drainage infrastructure in the country’s port city.
This additional financing to the Chittagong Water Supply Improvement and Sanitation Project will help the Chittagong Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (CWASA) continue to build water treatment plant, transmission and distribution networks and improve water distribution infrastructure, as well as prepare sanitation and drainage master plans for the city, according to a WB statement.
“Only about half of the people in the Chittagong metropolitan area can access piped water and inadequate sewerage and drainage infrastructure adds to the city’s water-logging problem,” Qimiao Fan, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal, said in the statement.
“To meet increasing demand, the World Bank is committed to helping expand and improve the supply of safe water, sanitation and drainage services in the city. This helps everyone, including marginalized slum dwellers.”
The project will construct the Modunaghat Water Treatment Plant and Patenga Booster Pumping Station, as well as a major water transmission system from Kalurghat to the Patenga Booster Pumping Station to expand production capacity and improve distribution.
The new financing will help 27,000 homes access reliable water supply, by installing 10,000 new piped household connections and rehabilitating 17,000 existing connections, it added.
To complete the remaining construction work, the project closing date is being extended from December 2018 to March 2020. With this additional financing, World Bank support to the project now stands at $218.50 million.
The credit from the WB’s International Development Association, which provides grants or zero-interest loans, has a 38-year term, including a six-year grace period, and a service charge of 0.75 per cent.
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