The additional financing will restore RWSS services for over a million rural people
WASHINGTON, March 04, 2014 – The World Bank today approved an additional financing of $24 million credit for the Uttarakhand Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) Project to help the state restore the services of the damaged RWSS schemes in the disaster affected areas of Uttarakhand.
The additional financing will support the on-going Uttarakhand Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project to reconstruct and restore RWSS schemes that were partially damaged following the severe floods and landslides that occurred in June 2013.
The closing date for the ongoing project will now be extended by 18 months from June 16, 2014 to December 31, 2015.
The additional financing will reconstruct both schemes damaged under the ongoing project as well as older schemes which are not part of the ongoing project. It will finance the reconstruction and restoration of an estimated 2,622 damaged Single Village Schemes and 579 Multi Village Schemes; 3,338 Individual Household Latrines (IHHLs), 3,328 soak pits and 41,770 meters of drains.
This will help restore RWSS services for over a million rural people, of which 50% are women. As of December 31, 2013, the ongoing project has benefitted nearly 1.22 million people in about 7,000 rural habitations in 13 districts.
“The additional financing will emphasize the need to build back smarter by increasing the multi hazard resilience level as well as the technical and service standards of all schemes under the project,” said Smita Misra, lead water and sanitation specialist and the project’s task team leader.
From 15 to 17 June this year, Uttarakhand, endowed with vast natural resources and one of the most frequented tourist and pilgrimage destinations in India, suffered unprecedented rainfall devastating the towns of Kedarnath, Rambara, Gaurikund and others.
A Joint Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (JRDNA) conducted by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) at the request of the government of India and in close collaboration with the government of Uttarakhand, estimated the physical damages across a range of sectors and calculated the total cost of reconstruction at about $661 million.
The additional financing will be financed by a credit from the International Development Association (IDA) – the part of the World Bank that helps the world’s poorest countries – which provides interest-free loans with 25 years to maturity and a grace period of 5 years.
