ADB to fund Indian water improvement projects

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has allocated $200m to improve the water supply and other urban services in the cities of Guwahati and Dibrugarh in Assam, India.

The amount will be used to provide clean piped water to the people of Guwahati and to upgrade the sewerage and solid waste systems of both cities.

Guwahati’s sewerage infrastructure project includes the construction of a treatment plant, pipes and pumping stations.

In Dibrugarh, flood relief culverts, bridges and sluice gates will be widened and rebuilt along with new drainage systems.

Sangay Penjor, the ADB’s principal urban development specialist in South Asia, said that the investment programme entails an integrated approach to urban development in the cities through the provision of a 24/7 water supply and the treatment of incremental wastewater.

Currently, only one in three of Guwahati’s one million inhabitants have access to piped water.

In Dibrugarh, wrong solid waste management and the dumping of waste choked its drainage system and caused heavy flooding during the rainy season.