Karachi (Reuters) – The Asian Development Bank said on Tuesday it had approved a $180 million loan to improve water supply and solid waste management services in two cities in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
“This project will help make municipal services in these two cities more sustainable, resilient, and less carbon-intensive,” ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov said in a statement.
The projects are for the cities of Rawalpindi and Bahawalpur, and the loan is part of a total of $10 billion which donors pledged to Pakistan to help it recover from last year’s devastating floods.
The floods, which scientists said were aggravated by global warming, affected at least 33 million people and killed more than 1,700 from the beginning of the monsoon season in mid-June until mid-November.
The donors include the Islamic Development Bank with $4.2 billion, the World Bank with $2 billion, Saudi Arabia with $1 billion, as well as the European Union and China. France and the United States also made contributions.
