According to the Bank’s website, the proposed project aims to improve water, sanitation, and solid waste management services in the project towns, thereby improving public health, livability, and climate resilience. Specifically, the project will: (i) reduce NRW by rebuilding and optimizing distribution networks using a district metered area (DMA) approach; (ii) enhance availability of water; (iii) improve drinking water quality to comply with government standards; (iv) strengthen water service provider entities such that they achieve long-term cost-effective lifecycle-based service provision to set service standards; (v) strengthen municipal capacity for revenue enhancement; (vi) increase resource recovery from fecal and solid waste streams through processing facilities; (vii) increase municipal capacity in incorporating climate resilience in masterplans, programs, projects, and operations; and (viii) promote gender equality by reducing women's unpaid water collection time, expanding access to safe sanitation, and enabling women's participation in water governance. The provision of reliable water supply will stimulate commercial activity in the project towns, stimulating private sector investment and job creation.

Water supply development. The project will rehabilitate and expand existing distribution networks to increase household connections and introduce volumetric metering to each household, along with a DMA approach. Overhead tanks and water treatment plants will be refurbished or upgraded as needed, while groundwater production tube wells will be refurbished or renewed and integrated into the overall system. In addition, where sustainable, additional utility-level water will be supplied through increased extraction from existing local surface sources, shifting groundwater extraction from private wells to public ones, development of possible rainwater harvesting systems, construction of surface water storage facilities, artificial aquifer recharge, savings from NRW reduction, and other innovative water sourcing methods. A supervisory control and data acquisition system will be installed to enhance automation, monitoring, and operational efficiency. To improve access and affordability in low-income communities and slum areas, the project will prioritize new connections to these areas. As new assets are constructed, the project will populate a digital asset management system to support strategic operations, investment planning, and improved O&M; practices. Water quality will be improved by developing, implementing, and monitoring a robust water quality management system (e.g., adequate frequency of sampling, sufficient laboratories and equipment, testing, dissemination of test results, corrective actions on substandard results, etc.).

Sanitation and solid waste management improvement. The project will take a citywide inclusive sanitation (CWIS) approach to improving sanitation in the project towns to achieve a more comprehensive, effective, and sustainable services, as well as higher resource recovery. This will include rehabilitating and constructing public sanitation facilities with gender-segregated design and features for menstrual hygiene management (MHM), ensuring safety, accessibility, and dignity for women and girls. Where feasible, women's groups will manage these facilities, that will be run on a fee basis. Segregated waste bins and specialized fecal and solid waste collection trucks will be provided. Fecal and organic solid waste treatment and disposal facilities to service Chandpur and Haziganj (a shared facility), as well as one to service Gopalpur, will be constructed, after land acquisition for the facilities is completed by the Government of Bangladesh. The collection, treatment, and disposal of fecal and solid waste will significantly reduce the unorganized disposal of such wastes as currently occurs, leading to a significant improvement in public health and amenity in the project towns, while enhancing resource recovery. This shall include digitalizing records of septic tank locations, introducing a digital system for ordering fecal sludge collections and tracking payments for collection, introducing payment options at local kiosks, and setting collection fees according to service cost.

Project execution arrangements. The Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) will be the executing agency, while Cumilla City Corporation and the seven participating pourashavas will act as implementing agencies. A project management unit will be established within DPHE and project implementing units will be formed.

PROJECT RATIONALE AND LINKAGE TO COUNTRY/REGIONAL STRATEGY

Managing Bangladesh's urban transition. Bangladesh's urban population was 31.1 million in 2001, 35.1 million in 2011, and 53.8 million in 2022. Rapid urbanization is putting further pressure on already inadequate services and infrastructure as of 2024, 32% of the urban population had a piped water supply connection to their home, 54% had access to a supply of uncontaminated water, and 32% had access to safely managed sanitation facilities. Inadequate urban services create significant public health risks and produce negative environmental impacts.

Financing growth through urban services. The Government of Bangladesh seeks to make quality urban infrastructure and services, underpinned by good urban governance, available to cater to rapid urbanization. The required urban sector investment is projected to grow from about 2.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal year (FY) 2021 to 7.0% of GDP by FY2041. To cover increased investment needs, the government has set out three strategies: tax mobilization, private financing, and user-pays cost recovery for services such as water supply, sewerage, and solid waste disposal. For urban areas, plans include increasing tap-water connectivity from 40% to 100%, sewerage connectivity to 100% (no baseline), and water-sealed sanitary toilets from about 42% to 100% in the period 20182041, while also making solid waste and wastewater treatment plants available to all (footnote 3).

Cumilla and Ishwardi clusters. The government has requested Asian Development Bank's (ADB) support to improve water supply and sanitation services in one city and seven towns (together the 'project towns ) using a 'cluster approach. The clusters are (i) Cumilla city corporation and the pourashavas of Haziganj, Chandpur, and Laksam under the Cumilla cluster; and (ii) the pourashavas of Ishwardi, Pabna, Natore, and Gopalpur under the Ishwardi cluster. The towns lie within or near the DhakaChattogram and DhakaRajshahi high-value economic corridors, identified as priority development areas by the government. The combined population in these clusters was about 1.2 million in 2022; with future population increases assumed to be 50% less than in the years 2011 to 2022, this would climb to 1.55 million by 2045. The towns have been selected based on their inadequate water supply services, geographic proximity, and location along major river systems.

Project towns' water supply and sanitation challenges. Water quality in the project towns generally fails to meet government standards and overall piped service coverage remains lowreaching only about 17% of the total population across the eight project towns. Nonrevenue water (NRW) is estimated to exceed 50%, mainly due to inadequate metering, the absence of pressure management, poor asset operation and management, and the age of the distribution networks, i.e., deteriorated materials resulting in leakage. Revenues are insufficient for cost recovery because of poor billing systems and services that are not of sufficient quality to satisfy paying customers. Many treatment plants and overhead tanks require refurbishment or repair and about half of groundwater production tube wells need refurbishment. Public toilets are limited and poorly maintained, while fecal sludge and solid waste services remain underdeveloped. In addition, the urban local bodies of the project towns lack sufficient technical and financial capacity to operate, maintain, and sustainably expand water supply and sanitation systems. The proposed project aims to address these challenges and deliver safe, reliable, and climate-resilient water supply and sanitation services for residents of high-growth secondary cities.

Climate risks. Bangladesh remains one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, facing frequent hydro-meteorological hazards, such as monsoon flooding, tropical cyclones, and droughts, all of which are projected to intensify with climate change. Unplanned urbanization is occurring without due consideration of these and other emerging risks, such as heatwaves, leaving infrastructure and land use in a state of constant vulnerability. The capacity of local governments to improve resilience is also limited by technical knowledge and financial resources. Although pourashava and city corporation masterplans have been prepared to guide urban development, they are not legally binding and therefore lack enforceability for effective development control and climate adaptation. Strengthening climate resilience in the project towns will require technical training, updating of masterplans, and improving local government finances.

Environment: B
Involuntary Resettlement: B
Indigenous Peoples: C

The financing amount is $150,000,000, which will be financed on a loan basis by ADB’s ordinary capital resources.

No contacts available at the time of disclosure.

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ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF ADB

The Accountability Mechanism is an independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an Asian Development Bank-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the Accountability Mechanism, they may investigate to assess whether the Asian Development Bank is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. You can learn more about the Accountability Mechanism and how to file a complaint at: http://www.adb.org/site/accountability-mechanism/main.