Manila, Feb 13, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Asian Development Bank (ASX: ATB) will continue its partnership with UN-HABITAT that began in 2003 to increase investments in safe drinking water and sanitation facilities for some of Asia's poorest urban areas.

The partnership, which carries the Water in Asian Cities Program, will extend to 2011 with each organization committing $10 million in grant funds - twice the amount committed in 2003.

The partnership was established to improve water supply and sanitation services to the urban poor in Asia, build the capacity of Asian cities to secure and manage prop-poor investments and help the region meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving by 2015 the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation.

"The development community has been continuously calling for greater collaboration among agencies in order to achieve development more efficiently and effectively. You have such a collaboration here between ADB and UN-HABITAT and in a sector that desperately needs it - urban sanitation," said Bindu Lohani, Director General of the Regional and Sustainable Development Department.

As part of the partnership, investments will be increased in urban water and sustainable sanitation, including environmentally sound solid waste management through reuse and recycling and sound waste disposal and treatment and extending wastes service coverage to the poorer neighborhoods, as well as slum upgrading and urban renewal.

There will also be a focus on human resource development and capacity building through several UN-HABITAT programs, such as Water for Asian Cities and Mekong Water and Sanitation, which ADB supports with investments and technical knowledge.

In addition, the partnership will support knowledge sharing, particularly information about the sanitation sector and contributing to the upcoming Global Report on Water and Sanitation in Asian Cities.

The $10 million in grants from ADB will be administered as technical assistance programmed in countries that have prioritized urban water investments in their country partnership strategies with ADB.

UN-HABITAT's $10 million in grants will be administered through its Water and Sanitation Trust Fund, but counted as commitments toward ADB's new Water Financing Partnership Facility, which aims to raise $100 million in grants to support various programs and loans with capacity building and knowledge sharing activities.

During the first phase of the partnership, between 2003-2006, the two organizations collaborated to build capacity, prepare projects and raise investments. ADB is on track to achieve its investment target of $500 million in urban water projects.

"Over the next 5 years, ADB expects to invest about $1 billion in urban water supply and sanitation. The investments will be part of ADB's Water Financing Program 2006-2010 to boost investments in the water sector to well over $2 billion a year," said Woochong Um, a Director in ADB's Regional and Sustainable Development Department.

For more information about WAC, visit
http://adb.org/water/wac/wac.asp or www.unwac.org.