Over 2,600 villages in the state of Andhra Pradesh will get improved water supply and sanitation thanks to a US$ 150 million (€ 101 million) World Bank loan. The Andhra Pradesh Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (APRWSSP) will provide piped water to 2.1 million people and sanitation services to 1 million people over a five-year period. The first phase, starting in December 2009, will cover 400 villages.

The villages targeted in the project are those where access to water is less than the 40 litres per capita a day or where there is no safe source of drinking water. Communities will contribute 10 per cent to the cost of the rural water and sanitation schemes, either in kind or in labour.

Besides through community participation, the project aims to achieve improvements through progressive decentralisation and enhanced accountability. Activities include institutional capacity, conducting sector development studies, construction or rehabilitation of infrastructure.

The APRWSSP loan is the first one that the World Bank has given to Andhra Pradesh exclusively for rural water supply and sanitation. It has extended similar loans for ongoing projects in Uttaranchal, Punjab, Karnataka and Kerala, and to a now completed project in Maharashtra.

Related news:

• Andhra Pradesh: shift to adaptive managing water demand needed, Source Bulletin, Aug 2009
• India, Andhra Pradesh: stream polluted by world’s highest levels of drugs, Source South Asia, 18 Feb 2009
• India, Andhra Pradesh: lowest number of working toilets, Source South Asia, 23 Jan 2009

Related web site: World Bank - Andhra Pradesh Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project

Source: The Hindu, 29 Sep 2009 ; World Bank, 22 Sep 2009

Tags: financing, rural wash, south asia