DHAKA: With a budget of Tk 133.16-crore funded by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and government jointly, government has taken a special move to ensure sustainable water management in municipality area under different circles.

The Department of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE) will primarily implement the project titled “Capacity Building of Urban Supply Service” at 124 municipalities under the eight circle including Barisal, Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Faridpur, and Sylhet circles.

A DPHE official told banglanews, “The Tk 133.16 crore-project has been taken to ensure water supply in the area, our (project) proposal has been sent to the Planning Commission for its meeting of Project Evaluation Committee.”

Human resources development (HRD) centers will also be set up in the area to run the sustainable prepaid water supply program and develop sanitation sectors in the areas.

“Our development partner IDB will provide Tk 101 crore for the project, which will be used to increase awareness on community participation; having collected the water bill, the municipality residents will be provided special services on the matter,” the official added.

Under the project, DPHE will set up new pipeline to strengthen the water supply system followed by establishing regional HRD centre in eight circles and department of public health engineering in 124 municipalities.

The project will be implemented throughout the period of July 2014 to July 2017.

Of the total amount, IDB will provide Tk 101.16 crore.

BDST: 1341 HRS, AUG 23, 2014