Sri Lanka's reform and development initiative has got a major boost with the finalization of a combined 500 million U.S. dollars financial support from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the organization said in a statement here on Monday.
The ADB has agreed to extend 300 million U.S. dollars for a non- revenue water management program in central Colombo in addition to 200 million U.S. dollars for education sector development.
For the latter, the ADB's loans comprise 100 million U.S. dollars from ordinary capital resources and 100 million U.S. dollars from its concessional Asian Development Fund.
The government's overall program is set to cost 4.9 billion U.S. dollars, according to the bank.
The Finance Ministry said the ADB and the government signed the first tranche of 84 million U.S. dollars under the multi-tranche credit line for implementation of the non-revenue water management program in the Greater Colombo area.
"The total investment cost of this program is 400 million U.S. dollars, of which 300 million U.S. dollars to be provided by the ADB to supplement government investment of 100 million U.S. dollars to improve water supply and water management systems in Colombo and suburban areas," the statement added.
The program is designed to reduce non-revenue water in municipal areas in Colombo from its current level of around 49 percent to 20 percent by 2016.
Most of the pipe-borne water supply systems in the Greater Colombo area are about 60 to 70 years old.
Since the end of the three-decade war in 2009, the Sri Lankan government has embarked on a massive development drive estimated at over 8 billion U.S. dollars. /.