The World Bank has loaned $50 million to China to improve wastewater management and town infrastructure in 150 selected rural villages in the southeastern municipality Ningbo.
The loan will support the municipal government’s adherence to China’s new countryside development program.
The program is a national strategy that targets a balanced urban and rural development according to human-centered and ecofriendly progress in the countryside.
The bank provided approximately 47 percent of the project’s total cost of $107 million.
Despite rapid economic growth since the late 1970’s, Ningbo, with 5.65 million residents, suffers from decreasing economic opportunities, poor necessary infrastructures, quantitative and qualitative drinking water shortage and inadequate sanitation services.
“The new project will allow the bank to continue our long-term partnership with Ningbo Municipality and work on the new initiatives in urban-rural integration to reduce disparities in growth and living standards,” said Wang Shenhua, project leader and a senior infrastructure specialist for the World Bank.
“Through this project, the bank will draw on its extensive global experience to demonstrate ways to improve the efficiency, cost-effectiveness and sustainability for rural sanitation, basic urban infrastructure and small town management,” she added.
Ms. Wang further said that the program may be replicated in other regions in China with similar characteristics if the project becomes a success.
The countryside development project has three components, with the first component focusing on rural wastewater management through the use of sustainable and appropriate technology matched with a program-based approach in which communities will play a key role.
The second component concentrates on infrastructure development, construction of access roads, water supply networks, wastewater collection and treatment facilities, while the last component involves capacity building and implementation support.
The bank has financed other projects in Ningbo, including the Ningbo water and environment project and the Zheijang urban environment project.
Wastewater management is one of a major concern for the Chinese government as the country has a track record of wastewater discharge ringing up to 209 billion tons in 2007, its first national pollution census shows.
Agriculture was identified as the biggest producer of water pollutants, producing 43 percent of China’s tons of chemical oxygen demand.
Source: Ecoseed
