CDB committed – to funding region’s water and sanitation sector

SOME US$120 million has been plugged into the region’s water and sanitation sector by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

Making this disclosure, the Bank’s Vice-President of Operations, Nigel Romano, said that over the past 40 years, financing had been allocated to basic infrastructure, including water treatment plants and the expansion of transmission, distribution and storage facilities; as well as to the provision of technical assistance to several countries to finance various pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, and tariff studies for water utilities.

“We have also worked closely with national and regional organisations to finance various water sector-related institutional strengthening and capacity building initiatives. In conjunction with our development partners, we have organised various training programmes in areas such as energy efficiency for water utilities, non-revenue water management, and policy development,” he further explained.

Saying that the CDB has been “an ardent proponent of co-operation in the water and sanitation sector”, he also outlined that it has supported several of its partner agencies, and brought the expertise of its multi-disciplinary team of professionals to bear in taking a holistic approach to the development of water sector-related projects across the region.

According to him, the water and sanitation sector would remain a centrepiece in the CDB’s medium-term development assistance.

“Taking into account our own emphasis on managing for development results, we will be doubling our efforts to work more closely with sector professionals and policymakers in our borrowing member countries to improve the overall management of the water and sanitation sector,” he said.

At the time, he was addressing the opening of a two-day Regional Sector Assessment Workshop at the CDB headquarters. (JMB)