Safe Water, Sanitation

Tk 105cr IDB loan for coastal areas

17 May 2010, 18:00 PM

Bss, Dhaka

Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has approved Tk 105 crore for potable water supply and safe sanitation for under-privileged people of the coastal areas of Bangladesh. The loan financing is free of interest charges and will carry only a service fee for meeting cost for project supervision, implementation and administration, an IDB press release said yesterday. This is the 3rd phase of the programme and the previous two programmes have been successfully implemented in cooperation with all the stakeholders and Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) under aegis of the Ministry of Local Government Rural Development and Cooperatives. The project will contribute to addressing the most severe and debilitating threats to health in the project area including child mortality, maternal health and diseases by providing access to safe drinking water and sanitation. The main objective of the project is to promote sustainable and healthy environmental conditions by reducing water related diseases and post cyclone environmental hazards. The project purpose is to provide supply of safe water and sanitation to the people of cyclone-prone coastal areas and also to support long term cyclone readiness facility for water supply and sanitation. About nine lakh people will directly benefit from receiving, on a sustainable basis, basic water supply and sanitation facilities. The project will increase, at least, the number of water points by 8,700 and low cost latrines by 7,000.