ADB extends $13.5 million additional loan to modernise irrigation

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) today signed agreements with Bangladesh for $13.5 million in additional project loan to modernise irrigation in the country.

The additional loan will improve management, operation, and maintenance of large-scale irrigation schemes; and protect productive lands from flooding as a part of scaling up the ongoing $46 million "Irrigation Management Improvement Project".

Fatima Yasmin, secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD), and Edimon Ginting, country director of ADB, virtually signed the loan agreements, ADB said in a press release.

Edimon Ginting said the assistance will help manage the effects of water abundance and scarcity by improving irrigation management and infrastructure.

"To promote sustainability in the water sector, this project will foster private sector participation by transferring management, operation, and maintenance of irrigation schemes from government departments to private operators."

It will also introduce innovative infrastructure modernization, such as replacing diesel motor pumps with electric pumps, developing highly efficient buried-pipe tertiary distribution systems, and installing prepaid card meter systems," Ginting added.

The project will repair 17 kilometres of the coastal embankment and re-excavate over 400 kilometres of canal drains.

By 2024, it will increase the dry-season irrigation area under the Muhuri irrigation system by 60 per cent to 18,000 hectares. The average yield of irrigated winter paddy (boro) is expected to increase to 4 tonnes per hectares from 3 tonnes in 2013.

The project will ensure the employment of at least 2 per cent women as pump operators, 5 per cent as mobile water unit vendors, and 5 per cent women as construction workers.

The assistance supports the improvement of climate resilience by promoting improved flood protection, reservoir management, and water use efficiency.