The Legal Agreement of the World Bank aiding Second Kerala Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Project was signed yesterday

The Legal Agreement of the World Bank aided Second Kerala Rural Water Supply & Sanitation Project was signed yesterday in the presence of State Chief Minister of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram. Shri Venu Rajamony, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance for Government of India, Mr. Hubert Nove Josserand, Operations Advisor on behalf of the World Bank, Shri. V.J. Kurian, Principal Secretary Water Resources Department on behalf of Kerala State Government and Shri Ashok Kumar Singh, Executive Director on behalf of the Project were the signatories. The Project envisages potable drinking water facility and sanitation interventions to about 1.84 million rural people covering 200 Grama Panchayath with in a period of 5 ½ years with total cost of Rs. 1022 Cr. The first phase of the project Implemented from 2000 to 2008 covered a population of 1.3 million people in 112 Gram Panchayaths, was very successful. The project was awarded position first runner up in the ˜peoples first award™ competition by the World Bank in the year 2008. The Second phase is designed to provide more benefits to the communities than that the first phase. 22 Grama Panchayaths are already selected for the Batch I implementation and Supporting Organisations were engaged and agreements have been executed. The State wide inauguration of the project implementation was conducted at Kadaplamatton Grama Panchayath in Kottayam District by the Chief Minister of Kerala Shri Ommen Chandy in the presence of Shri P.J. Joseph, State Minister for Water Resources last month on 14th January 2012.