Water

Postcard snapshots of tranquil Asian rural scenes can be deceptive—golden harvests, stately mountains, smiling faces. Reality is much harsher, made more so by the lack of water for irrigating agricultural fields, better drainage to prevent floods, or clean drinking water and sanitation facilities in people's homes.

Governments and private-sector investors tend to give these kinds of improvements low priority, likely because of perceived low returns on investments. However, the return is huge for the individuals who are spared from dry fields, floods, hours of walking for water, and unsanitary environments around their home.

ADB's Water Financing Program promotes investments in water supply and sanitation, and irrigation and drainage to improve health and livelihoods in Asia's rural communities.

Minanto Indonesia has made significant progress in introducing participatory irrigation management. Minanto has been pushing for greater participation of farmers and communities in managing Indonesia's irrigation systems.

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Farmers Rebuild Aceh's Irrigation Four years since a tsunami engulfed Aceh, farmers have finished rebuilding irrigation systems covering over 50,000 hectares. Now they are ready to begin life anew and harvest their first crops since the disaster.

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Developing and Demonstrating a Mechanism for Sustainable Supply of Purified Water in Remote Communities Water treatment technology and operation and maintenance models for supplying safe drinking water will be tested by this pilot project.

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Revitalizing Asia's Irrigation: To Sustainably Meet Tomorrow's Food Needs Asia needs major irrigation reforms, says this new report that lays out the considerable challenges, options, and scenarios to feed Asia, whose population is expected to expand by 1.5 billion in 2050.

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