SOP-II of KWSSIP: Sindh government will carry out environmental, design studies

KARACHI: Government of Sindh with 100 percent grant in aid of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will carry out environmental, social safeguards and design studies to prepare sub-project of SOP-II of Karachi Water & Sewerage Services Improvement Project (KWSSIP).

KWSSIP has been developed to provide a platform for the targeted institutional and governance reforms in Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KW&SB) along with a strategic investment for the improvement of water & sewerage infrastructure to bring about reliability in service delivery to its consumers.

The total cost of the project is 661 million rupees and its total cost would be funded from the foreign sources. AIIB will extend the amount against the total cost as grant in aid.

The project aims to deliver strategic coherence with the long term financial framework for the infrastructure expansions and utility reform program being pursued by KW&SB significantly achieving upgraded infrastructure, capacity building and an enabling environment for investments with an objective to improve access to safe water services in Karachi and to increase KW&SB's financial and operational performance.

The KWSSIP Project comprises four overlapping Phases (Series of Projects) SOPs to be implemented in twelve years with first SOP already approved and investing US$100 million and grouped into three components.

Component 1 of the Project will finance both capacity building and reform measures to improve the enabling environment, thus contributing to improve utility performance for more reliable water and sewerage services.

Component 2 will undertake selected infrastructure investments, thereby ameliorating water and sewerage services in Karachi and increasing the city's resilience to water shortages and sewage flooding.

Component 3 will fund project management and associated studies. The environmental and social safeguard studies and designs are identified by the environment and social policy of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and World Bank as prerequisite for securing sustainable funds for water supply and sewerage infrastructure development, proposed under component 2 of the project.

Building on the offer of project preparation fund, the AIIB indicated that it required a formal application from Government of Pakistan to proceed further in this regard.

Accordingly, the KW&SB forwarded a request for acquiring approval of AIIB project preparation special fund for carrying out preparatory studies of Phase-II. The Economic Affairs Division requested AIIB for the project preparation special fund facility required for the preparatory studies of Phase-II of KWSSIP. The project is expected to be completed in one year.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020