Colombo, Nov 2 (NIA) – The Sri Lankan government has obtained a loan of 60 million dollars from the Asian Development Bank to provide safe drinking water supply schemes for chronic kidney disease prone areas, a statement by the Finance Ministry said here on Wednesday.
The schemes will be set up in in the districts of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Matale, Badulla, Monaragala, Puttalam and Kurunegala.
In addition to the provision of safe drinking water to the vulnerable communities of CKD prone areas, the project will also contribute to improve priority infrastructure and basic services delivery in 29 local areas in the Western, Southern, Central, North Western and Uva Provinces.
The ADB had also previously provided 59 million US dollars for projects ending December 2016.
This earlier financial assistance was provided for improvement of basic infrastructure facilities such as providing water supplies, development of road, drainage and culverts, maternity and child care centres at local government areas in the seven provinces, the Ministry said.
The total investment cost of the project under the agreement signed Wednesday will be 67.84 million dollars whereas the government’s contribution on the project will be 7.84 million dollars.
Around 75 per cent of the loan will be utilized for water supply schemes in CKD prone areas and the rest for the local infrastructure and capacity building in local authorities selected for the project.
Each year, hundreds of people die from CKD in Sri Lanka, especially from the island’s north central dry zone agricultural region.
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