World Bank approves $500m for Indian water programme

The World Bank has approved $500m for the implementation of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project for Low Income States (RWSSP-LIS) in Indian states over a period of six years.

The $1bn project aims to enhance piped water supply and sanitation services for selected rural communities in the target states through decentralised delivery systems and to increase the capacity of the participating states to respond promptly and effectively to an eligible crisis or emergency.

The project consists of four components, namely capacity building and sector development; infrastructure development; project management support and contingency emergency response.

The capacity building and sector development component supports the building of institutional capacity for implementing, managing and sustaining project activities.

The second component supports investments for improving water supply and sanitation coverage, including construction of new infrastructure and rehabilitation and augmentation of existing schemes.

The third component, project management, supports the various entities at the national, state, district and village levels for implementing the project, including staffing, consultancy and equipment costs, and internal and external financial audits.

The final component deals with the utilisation of resources from unallocated expenditure and allows the Indian Government to request the bank to re-categorise and reallocate financing from other project components to partially cover emergency response and recovery costs in the event of an emergency or crisis.