ADB approves $180mn loan to improve urban environment in Pakistan's Punjab

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a 180 million U.S. dollars loan to improve water supply and solid waste management services in two rapidly growing cities in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, the ADB said on Tuesday.

Expected to benefit 1.5 million people, the Developing Resilient Environments and Advancing Municipal Services in Punjab Project will curtail excessive groundwater extraction and urban environment degradation by expanding and modernizing urban water supply in Rawalpindi and solid waste management systems in Bahawalpur, the ADB said in a statement.

In Rawalpindi, the project will help build new surface water intakes and a water treatment plant with a capacity of 54 million liters daily, laying transmission and distribution pipes with metered connections for 82,000 households, said the statement.

Meanwhile, solid waste collection in Bahawalpur will be improved through the procurement of waste collection equipment and a new fleet to expand service coverage, to be supported by the new fleet management information system, said the statement.