On Jan. 22, 2018, The World Bank and the country of India reached an agreement that will see the bank provide a $120 million loan to improve the water supply services of Uttarakhand, a state in northeast India.
The new loan will have a five year grace period and a maturity of 17 years. It will specifically target peri-urban areas in Uttarakhand. The new program under the umbrella of this windfall has been coined The Uttarakhand Water Supply Program for Peri-Urban areas.
This new program will provide several new services to the area. Specifically, it will increase water supply coverage and service delivery.
In addition to this, it will attempt to strengthen current monitoring and evaluation systems while providing incentives for preparation and adoption of water supply ‘master-plans’ for the peri-urban areas at hand, among other things.
This new effort comes after a time of massive growth for Uttarakhand, including a 42% population increase from 2001 to 2011, far beyond the national growth average during the same time period.
