More investments in safe drinking water

More investments in safe drinking water



Feb 2007 - The Asian 
Development Bank has decided to continue its partnership with 
UN-HABITAT to increase investments in safe drinking water and 
sanitation facilities for some of Asia’s poorest urban areas. 
The partnership, which carries the Water in Asian Cities 
Program, will extend to 2011 with each organization committing 
$10 million in grant funds - twice the amount committed in 
2003 when the two agencies began this collaboration. 
"Over the next five years, ADB expects to invest about $1 
billion in urban water supply and sanitation. The investments 
will be part of ADB’s Water Financing Program 2006-2010 to 
boost investments in the water sector to well over $2 billion 
a year," said Woochong Um, a director in the Asian Development 
Bank’s Regional and Sustainable Development Department. 
Polluted water runs past homes in a Saigon slum. 
The partnership was established to improve water supply and 
sanitation services to the urban poor in Asia, build the 
capacity of Asian cities to secure and manage investments, and 
to help the region meet the Millennium Development Goal of 
halving by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable 
access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation. 
During the first phase of the partnership, between 2003 and 
2006, the two organizations collaborated to build capacity, 
prepare projects and raise investments. 
For instance, the introduction of regional autonomy in 
Indonesia 2001 transferred authority from the central 
government to regional governments at the district and city 
level for all aspects of local infrastructure and service 
delivery including planning, provision, financing, and 
management of water supply and sanitation. 
But many of the more than 300 water utilities across Indonesia 
are hard pressed to provide minimum service to consumers and 
are connecting only about 34 percent of the population in 
their service areas to piped water supply. 
In addition, the lack of sanitation services requires urgent 
attention, including rehabilitation and extension of 
wastewater collection and treatment systems, and priority 
drainage-urban flood control leading to improved urban 
environments, especially in the low income areas. 
Boy enjoys a drink on Flores Island in Indonesia's East Nusa 
Tenggara province. 
To help resolve these issues, the Asian Development Bank is 
contributing US$1.5 million and UN-Habitat US$2 million to 
Indonesia's Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project this 
year. In addition, the bank has invested US$80 million in the 
project. 
"The development community has been continuously calling for 
greater collaboration among agencies in order to achieve 
development more efficiently and effectively," said Bindu 
Lohani, director general of the Regional and Sustainable 
Development Department. You have such a collaboration here 
between ADB and UN-HABITAT and in a sector that desperately 
needs it - urban sanitation." 
To help achieve the Millenium Development Goal Water Targets, 
the bank is implementing a pilot project that demonstrates 
speedy delivery of piped water supply to urban or peri-urban 
areas on the periphery of cities in India, the Philippines, 
and Vietnam. Small-scale water providers are being tapped to 
expedite water delivery to consumers. UN-HABITAT is 
implementing the pilot activities in India. 
As part of the partnership, investments will be increased in 
urban water and sustainable sanitation, including 
environmentally sound solid waste management through reuse and 
recycling and sound waste disposal and treatment and extending 
wastes service coverage to the poorer neighborhoods, as well 
as slum upgrading and urban renewal. 
Lack of a toilet in the home means that millions of people 
must walk to unhealthy and sometimes unsafe locations to 
relieve themselves. India, 2005. 
There will be a focus on human resource development and 
capacity building through UN-HABITAT programs, such as Water 
for Asian Cities and Mekong Water and Sanitation, which the 
bank supports with investments and technical knowledge. 
Currently in the development stage, the Mekong program will 
focus on selected secondary cities in Cambodia, Lao PDR, 
Thailand, Vietnam and China's Yunnan province. In addition to 
improving access to water supply and sanitation services, the 
program aims to generate water investments and promote sector 
reforms. 
In addition, the partnership will support knowledge sharing, 
particularly information about the sanitation sector and 
contributing to the upcoming Global Report on Water and 
Sanitation in Asian Cities. 
The $10 million in grants from ADB will be administered as 
technical assistance to countries that have prioritized urban 
water investments in their country partnership strategies with 
the bank. 
UN-HABITAT’s $10 million in grants will be administered 
through its Water and Sanitation Trust Fund. 
These grants will be counted as commitments toward the Asian 
Development Bank’s new Water Financing Partnership Facility, 
which aims to raise $100 million in grants to support various 
programs and loans with capacity building and knowledge 
sharing activities. 
Bank officials say the ongoing and pipelined ADB investments 
under this program now stand at US$570 million, exceeding the 
initial target of US$500 million.

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