ADB Grants to Help Tsunami-Affected Households in Sri Lanka Afford Utility Connections

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (17 October 2005) - ADB has approved a US$2 million grant from its Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR), financed by the Government of Japan, to help connect tsunami-affected poor households in Sri Lanka to electricity and water supplies.

The project will set-up a facility that will award more than 4,400 grants to poor households that cannot afford utility connections for their houses after rebuilding and repair work has finished.

After the tsunami, the Government marked out a conservation zone along the affected coastline where no houses could be rebuilt. Subject to an ongoing reassessment of the boundaries of this zone, former residents of the conservation zone will be relocated by the Government, with provisions for utility connections.

Tsunami-affected houses located outside the conservation zone will receive grants from the Government to enable them to rebuild their houses, but these grants do not cover utility connections. The project will target these households.

"Without financial support, many of these poor households will not be able to afford utility connections," says Hasitha Wickremasinghe, Economics Officer at ADB's Resident Mission in Sri Lanka.

The 26 December tsunami destroyed or damaged about 78,000 houses in Sri Lanka, most of which belonged to poor households with no access to basic utilities. Even the wells on which many of the households depended on for their water supply were contaminated.

"The Government aims to restore and improve the living conditions of the affected poor, and providing access to electricity and water will help achieve this purpose," adds Ms. Wickremasinghe.

Aside from being located outside the conservation zone and having no electricity or water connection, to qualify as a beneficiary, a household must not have availed of a concessional loan from the Government and must be a recipient of Samurdhi, the public sector program for poverty alleviation in Sri Lanka.

Nongovernment organizations will help identify and assist the beneficiaries in applying for the grants, as well as to monitor the supply of connections in coordination with the Ceylon Electricity Board and the Water Supply and Drainage Board.

To ensure the sustainability of the connections, the selection criteria and process have been designed to make disconnection less likely. For example, households that meet certain criteria for type of employment and income patterns will be selected.

ADB has earlier approved $150 million grant and a $7 million loan for the Tsunami-affected Areas Rebuilding Project (TAARP) in Sri Lanka, which will help improve living conditions in the tsunami-affected areas by restoring basic social infrastructure, community and public services, and livelihoods in these areas.

The Ceylon Electricity Board and the Water Supply and Drainage Board are the executing agencies for the JFPR grant project, which will be carried out over about 12 months.

The JFPR was set up in 2000 with an initial contribution of Y10 billion (about $90 million), followed by additional contributions of $155 million and a commitment of $50 million. In January, the Government of Japan announced the provision of an additional $20 million through its trust funds at ADB to support relief measures in areas devastated by the December earthquake and tsunami.

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