KARACHI:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will give $400 million for a programme to improve the infrastructure and municipal utility services for about five million people of the province through reforms and investments, said ADB’s urban specialist Kathie Julian on Monday.
She said this at a meeting on the Sindh Cities Improvement Programme (SCIP) presided over by Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah.
An Urban Utility Services Corporation will be set up to invest in water supply, wastewater and solid waste management and other infrastructure through public-private partnerships. The ADB would provide $300 million in five tranches and the Sindh government would contribute $100 million over 10 years, from 2008 to 2018.
The SCIP is currently working with $50 million, a loan for which was signed in February 2009 and became effective from March 2009. Later, the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation was set up for the cities of upper Sindh that have poor sanitation. The corporation is responsible for implementing the reforms and investing in the six districts of Khairpur, Larkana, Shikarpur, Sukkur, New Sukkur and Rohri.
The chief minister said that the drainage, water supplies and sanitation schemes, especially those in collaboration with the ADB, must be completed without any delay.
Next will come Jacobabad, Kandhkot, Ghotki, Ratodero, Nawabshah, Moro, Nausheroferoz, Sanghar, Shahdadpur and Tando Adam, and then Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar, Tando Muhammad Khan and Matli.
About $7.681 million has been allocated for the Khairpur water management project and six generators and 11 portable dewatering projects were allotted for Shikarpur. The Larkana wastewater management project and the equipment for solid waste management have been set up to serve all six areas that fall within Larkana.
Other works have also been completed and are ready to be tested. They include the drilling wells for Rohri, solid waste collection equipment for all six districts which include seven rear loading trucks, 33 side loading trucks and 520 containers, the Bandar Road and Numaish water treatment plants of Sukkur and Khaki Shah, the Khairpur water treatment plant and construction of the SCIP platform for the districts at the cost of $12.547 million.
The ADB team and director Ramesh Subramanium also gave details of other schemes. The meeting was attended by Tariq Mehmood, Asghar Memon and Mian Shafi of the ADB, Adviser for Planning and Development (P&D) Kaiser Bengali, Chief Secretary Abdul Subhan Memon, P&D Additional Chief Secretary Muhammad Ishaq Lashari and Secretary to the CM Allamuddin Bullo.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 31st, 2011.
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