The World Bank on Wednesday approved a $133 million credit to help Nepal construct and maintain safe, resilient and cost-effective bridges on its strategic roads network.

The strategic roads network forms Nepal’s transport backbone and includes roughly 12,142 kilometres of national highways, feeder roads and other roads of national importance that are connected by 1,773 bridges.

The credit was approved under the second Bridges Improvement and Maintenance Programme (BIMP II) to ensure that the government’s bridge development efforts can support the connectivity required for economic growth and development across Nepal’s provinces. New initiatives under BIMP II include support to improve bridge resilience and enhance inclusion of non-motorised transport modes using advanced technical designs.

The credit is targeted to provide support to approximately 477 bridges in Nepal in different ways. This includes maintenance support to approximately 90 bridges and upgrading road safety measures on approximately 180 existing bridges to help reduce accidents, injuries, and fatalities on Nepal’s roads. The programme will also support construction, rehabilitation or replacement of approximately 80 new two-lane bridges and 35 four-lane bridges. In addition, it will help the Department of Roads complete construction of 92 bridges that are vital to improving connectivity and access throughout Nepal.

“Nepal needs a strong bridge network and even stronger institutions to manage and develop that network into the future. The BIMP II aims at supporting both the network’s physical development as well as the government systems that manage it,” said Faris Hadad-Zervos, the World Bank Country Manager for Nepal. “We hope that the improvement of bridges in the most crucial road network of the country will lead to increased and easier access for all the people in Nepal, while reducing the cost and time of transport and trade.”

The first BIMP was one of the first two operations globally to use the Programme for Results (P4R) financing instrument that links disbursement of funds directly to delivery of verifiable results.  The current operation builds on this experience and uses a ‘hybrid’ design that also combines results-based disbursement with a component of traditional financing to capture the benefits of both approaches. The combination of instruments provides a wider breadth of tools to ensure that government systems will be strengthened throughout implementation.

“The operation also has a strong focus on climate resilience, gender inclusion, and innovative technologies,” said Dominic Pasquale Patella, Senior Transport Specialist at the World Bank and Co-Task Team Leader of the Operation. “For example, it includes an initiative for the advancement of female engineers and the establishment of a new Design and Advanced Technology Cell within the Department of Roads to manage the uptake of new technologies for bridge development.”

ADB loans $130m to improve water supply and sanitation

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of $130 million to improve access to community-managed water supply and sanitation in 20 urban municipalities of Nepal.

“Unmanaged rapid urban growth and lack of improved water supply and sanitation have led to environmental degradation, public health risks, rising urban poverty, and increased vulnerability to climate change and natural hazards,” said ADB Senior Urban Development Specialist Alexandra Vogl. “Building on the experience of three previous ADB projects, the project will finance climate-resilient and accessible water supply and sanitation infrastructure and strengthen capacity in the communities and utility operators to deliver services over the long term.”

Nepal has made strong efforts to improve access to water supply and sanitation, increasing coverage since 2000. However, in 2016, only 34 percent of water supply was reported to be safe and 15 percent met the national water quality standards, the ADB said in a press statement. More efforts are also needed to improve sanitation, given that only 34 percent of urban households have septic tanks and only 15 percent have sewer connections, it said.

The new project will support the installation or repair of 1,600 kilometres of water supply pipes and 15 water treatment plants each with an estimated capacity of 600,000 litres a day. This will result in 66,000 households being connected to piped water. About 8,000 toilets will also be constructed along with 20 public toilets suitable for both genders and the disabled. Among other activities, the project will construct two wastewater treatment plants and 30 km of stormwater drainage.

The total cost of the project is $178.5 million, of which the government and beneficiaries will contribute $48.5 million.