Jakarta , July 13, 2006 - The World Bank Board recently approved the Third Water Supply and Sanitation for Low Income Communities Project, which will cover some 100 districts in 12 provinces over seven years. The Project aims to improve the water supply, sanitation, and hygiene of some 5,000 of Indonesia's poor communities. The US$275 million Project is supported by a US$137.5 million IDA credit with the balance from the Indonesian government and beneficiary communities. The Project is being implemented by the Ministry of Public Works and will bring benefits to an estimated six to 10 million poor people.
This is part of a key GOI effort to improve the health and productivity of millions of the country's poor by providing access to clean water and sanitation. Two of the four leading causes of infant mortality – typhoid and diarrhea – are directly linked to inadequate water supply, sanitation and poor hygiene. This Project will build on the World Bank's two previous water and sanitation projects and support the Government's plan to scale up the community driven approach, providing grants for villages to build their own infrastructure.
"The Project will help raise the quality of life in poor communities by improving health, human development and earning capacity," says Vicente Paqueo, the World Bank's Human Development Sector Coordinator in Indonesia . Saving time on fetching water and fewer days off from school and work due to ill health will improve productivity and earning capacity for thousands of poor people.” Therefore, an important component of the Project will be the promotion of hygiene practices in schools, the scaling up of the Community-Led Total Sanitation program and and local institutional development to support these services for the poor.
To meet its Medium Term Plan for Development, the Government of Indonesia hopes to reduce by half the number of those without water and sanitation facilities by 2015. This means increasing access to clean water for 180 million from 102 million in 2002 and sanitation coverage for 192 million from 116 million. These goals are now being supported by a new government policy to empower Indonesian communities to choose, co-finance and manage their own water, sanitation, and hygiene improvement programs.
Work on the Project will begin approximately in September and the bulk of the money, some US$182 million, will be used to build infrastructure facilities after taking into consideration the local environmental conditions and needs of indigenous communities.
