World Bank signs $47.5m in additional loans for water supply system in Chittagong

The World Bank has signed an additional $47.5 million fund for Bangladesh to improve sanitation and drainage system in Chittagong.

With this, around 650,000 inhabitants of the port city will have access to safe water, the World Bank said in a statement on Sunday. The government and the World Bank signed the financing agreement at the Economic Relations Division or ERD in Dhaka.

It will enable the Chittagong Water Supply and Sewerage Authority or CWASA to complete the Modunaghat Water Treatment Plant and Patenga Booster Pumping Station. The project will also install a 60km new water transmission pipeline and rehabilitate another 73km pipeline from Kalurghat to the Patenga Booster Pumping Station.

 “Only half of the people living in Chittagong metropolitan area, the country’s second largest city, have access to improved water supply,” said Rajashree Paralkar, acting World Bank country director for Bangladesh.

“The financing will help improve access to safe water and sanitation services in Chittagong City. We also hope that CWASA will be able to mitigate the city’s water-logging issues by improving the drainage infrastructure with the implementation of the drainage and sewerage master plans that the project is supporting to finalise.”

The project has already provided access to improved water to 254,400 people.

The additional financing will help 27,000 homes access reliable water supply by installing 10,000 new piped household connections and rehabilitating 17,000 existing connections.

“The government is committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring sustainable access to water and sanitation for all,” said Mahmuda Begum, additional secretary of ERD.

With this additional financing, World Bank support to the project now stands at $218.5 million.

The credits are from the International Development Association or IDA, the World Bank’s concessional lending arm.

The credits are interest-free but carry a service charge of 0.75 percent. Loans are repayable in 38 years, including a six-year grace period.

The World Bank was among the first development partners to support Bangladesh following its independence. Since then the World Bank has committed over $26 billion in grants and interest-free credits to the country.

In recent years, Bangladesh has been the largest recipient of the World Bank’s interest-free credits.