TheCable

The federal government says seven states will benefit from the first tier of the $700 million World Bank loan for specific water projects.

The states are Bauchi, Delta, Ekiti, Imo, Katsina, Kaduna and Plateau.

Suleiman Adamu, minister of water resources, made this known on Thursday at the weekly ministerial press briefing organised by the presidential communication team at the presidential villa, Abuja.

In May, the World Bank approved a $700 million credit facility that will help deliver improved Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services to 2,000 schools and health care facilities, and assist 500 communities to achieve open defecation-free status.

According to Adamu, the seven states will access between $50- $60 million each.

“Some certain criteria were set up by World Bank and the government. And the states had to meet the criteria. And the projects are submitted into tier one and tier two,” Adamu said.

“Tier one is for those that will get a substantial amount, maybe $50, $60 million for the urban schemes.

“For the P-WASH (Plan – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Action Plan, is the rural component, and it is going to the state specifically. 

“Some are going as a grant, while some of it is going to some specific projects. And like I said, there are eligible criteria that states ought to have met, it is not all the 36 states. There are conditions attached on which basis that this money is going to be disbursed.

“So the whole thing has not been finalised yet, but what we have is an approval in general from the World Bank specifically for this, there’ll be some realignments here and there and that’s something that we’re going to be working on between our ministry, Ministry of Finance and the World Bank.”

The minister said the federal government is working on 116 ongoing and abandoned water projects.

He added that 38 irrigation, 458 water supply schemes, 37 dams and reservoirs have been completed.