The Hindu Business Line : Govt seeks Rs 1,110 cr from World Bank agency

Bangalore, Oct. 30 Encouraged by the successful implementation of the initial phase of Jal Nirmal (JNP), a rural drinking water supply project in 11 districts, the State Government has decided to seek an additional Rs 1,110 crore assistance from the International Development Association (IDA), a soft lending agency of the World Bank.

The Jal Nirmal project launched in December 2001 had been planned as a community based project to institutionalise the decentralisation or rural water supply and sanitation service delivery to gram panchayats and user groups.

The first phase covering Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Koppal, Gadag, Haveri, Belgaum, Dharwad and Uttara Kannada districts had implemented the safe drinking water. Besides, solving the drinking water problems, JNP has also been instrumental in improving the sanitation facilities in 3,000 villages of rain-fed districts of North Karnataka. The project costing Rs 997 crore was funded by IDA.

The project involved the community with the objective of instilling the concept of sustainability. The community would be collecting user fee for the operation and maintenance of the facilities.

A Government official said the additional funding of Rs 1,110 crore would be utilised for providing potable water and sanitation services in the eleven districts.

The World Bank team is expected to visit the State next week to evaluate the performance of the project already implemented and conduct an appraisal for the additional loan.

The interest rate for the loan would be 0.75 per cent with a repayment period of 50 years, which includes a moratorium of 14 years. The amount would be utilised in the next three year period (2009-10 to 2012-13), the official said.

During the last nine years of the project implementation, the project districts have achieved significant success in providing the basic minimum service level of drinking water (55 litres per capita day) to most of its rural population.

However, it has yet to achieve operational and maintenance (O&M) sustainability of the water service.

Villagers in these project areas have formed over 3,000 village water and sanitation committees that are now running 2,500 water supply schemes. The village water sanitation committees (VWSCs) have been given water quality testing kits to check drinking water quality regularly, the official said.

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