ADB to give Afghanistan $56.6m in grant aid

^{KABUL $56.6 million in emergency assistance grant to reconstruct its irrigation and rural roads in 15 northern provinces after a heavy damage due to severe flooding earlier this year.}

^{An agreement to the effect was signed on Tuesday between Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal and ADB’s Officer in-Charge in Afghanistan, Hans Woldring in Kabul.}  

^{“Physical upgrades of the irrigation system are crucial for improving livelihoods and achieving financial and food security of rural households in Afghanistan,” Zakhilwal said after signing the agreement.}

^{He said improved irrigation systems could help boost agricultural output and promote economic growth and reduce poverty.}

^{The assistance consists of a $40 million grant from ADB’s Asian Development Fund and id=”mce_marker”6.6 million in grant co-financing that ADB will administer from the Afghanistan Infrastructure Trust Fund, funded by the UK Department for International Development.}

^{The Ministry of Finance will be the executing agency for this project. “The grant project will help restore irrigation and provide access to markets after thousands of livelihoods were hit by the floods, causing extensive losses to rural infrastructure,” said Woldring.}

^{During April to early June this year, heavy rains in many parts of northern Afghanistan triggered severe flash floods that caused widespread destruction and loss of life. The flooding, regarded locally as the worst for at least a generation, affected more than 125,000 people in 27 provinces.}

^{ADB put the damage cost in four provinces alone, based on multi-agency consultations, at around $240 million, with 70 percent of losses due to damage to housing and agricultural infrastructure, crops, and livestock.}

^{The project will help communities and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, and Ministry of Energy and Water to repair damaged irrigation equipment.}

^{It will also help protect land from the further threat of erosion from floods by funding retaining walls as required, enabling irrigated land to be returned to full production as soon as possible. The rehabilitation of roads and bridges will allow rural connectivity to be restored.}

^Pr/ma

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