The World Bank is proposing a project that would support Shaanxi and Sichuan in carrying out an integrated approach to the design and delivery of rural water supply, sanitation and hygiene services, while incorporating past innovations and lessons learned, to scale up the approach in China. It would support poverty alleviation by targeting poor villages and peri-urban areas which lack safe drinking water and sanitation facilities. It has four components:

• water supply (US$ 50 million = EUR 38.1 million)
• sanitation (US$ 15 million = EUR 11.4 million)
• hygiene education (US$ 5 million = EUR 3.8 million)
• institutional strengthening (US$ 5 million = EUR 3.8 million).

Tentative financing includes US$ 25 million (EUR 19 million) each from the borrower, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)/World Bank, and the British Department for International Development (DFID).

Contact: Thomas L. Zearly, IBRD, Beijing, e-mail

Source: World Bank, 21 Feb 2007