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About a million residents as well as businesses and industries in Samut Prakarn Province and neighboring provinces in Thailand will benefit from a cleaner environment as a result of a $150 million loan for a wastewater management project, approved today by the Asian Development Bank.
The loan, from the Bank's ordinary capital resources, has a term of 25 years including a grace period of five years. Principal and interest, in accordance with the Bank's variable lending rate system for US dollar loans which currently is 6.91 per cent per annum, will be paid semiannually. The Bank will finance 30 per cent of the total project cost of $507 million and the Government will shoulder $357 million equivalent.
The project will improve the quality of the environment, public health and welfare in Samut Prakarn Province, one of five provinces comprising the Bangkok Metropolitan Region where about 1.2 million residents and 4,000 factories generate large wastewater flows. Because of the severity of the Province's problem, the Government declared it a pollution control area in 1994, which ensures it priority for funding for environmental improvements.
Wastewater collection and central treatment facilities, the least-cost approach to wastewater management, will be provided for the most developed urban and industrial districts in Samut Prakarn.
The project will also assist the Government in implementing policy reforms to develop a program on industrial pollution prevention and clean technology transfer, set cost-recovery mechanisms for wastewater management, strengthen financial management, and monitor and enforce pollution control regulations.
The project will particularly benefit women and low-income families, living close to factories and low-lying flood-prone areas, who are most exposed to polluted waterways.
The Pollution Control Department of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment will be the executing agency for the project. The Department will establish the Samut Prakarn Pollution Control Unit which will be responsible for project implementation.