Dec. 20, 2000, M2 Communications - MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Calcutta, one of India's most densely populated cities requiring urgent environmental upgradation, will get a major environmental clean-up as a result of a project for which the Asian Development Bank today approved a loan of U.S.$250 million.
The Calcutta Environment Improvement Project will help the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) develop a policy and institutional framework to manage sewage and drainage systems, solid waste, slum improvement and canal rehabilitation. The project will also upgrade sewage collection systems and treatment plants and construct new sewer trunk lines and pumping stations. In addition, it will enable CMC to become more proficient and autonomous.
At present, less than one in five people in the project area is connected to a sewage system while less than half the population has access to drains. Industrial wastes flow largely untreated into canals, exposing the community to acids, toxic chemicals, paints, varnish, and other hazardous materials. Especially during the wet season - when floods are common - there has been an increase in waterborne and other communicable diseases such as tuberculosis.
The project will address the waste being discharged by hundreds of industries into open canals and improve living and health conditions for 5 million people, including many in the city's outer areas, where half the population lives in slums.
The project will dredge and desilt canals totaling 53 kilometers and upgrade or replace culverts, bridges and pumping stations to improve flows. Such canal improvements and other construction will involve resettling 11,000 people to a nearby area with better living conditions. Compensation and assistance for those being moved is being organized under a model program. All stakeholders in the project have been extensively involved in designing the project. Up to 65,000 slum dwellers will benefit from better water supply and sanitation facilities.
The total project cost is U.S.$360 million, of which ADB will finance 69 percent and state government and CMC the remainder.
The ADB loan will come from its ordinary capital resources.
CMC and the Irrigation and Waterways Department will be the executing agencies for the project, scheduled for completion in mid-2007.
