WB Funds Environmental Recovery Project in Liaohe River BasinThe World Bank (WB) approved Wednesday a 100-million-US-dollar loan for the China Liaohe River Basin Project, which will assist the environmental recovery of the basin in northeast China's Liaoning Province.Sources with the bank's China residence said the project will help the provincial government put in place the policies, institutions, and infrastructure to sustain environmental quality and improve urban services. "It will generate benefits in terms of improvements in environmental quality, health, municipal services and institutional capacity," said Geoffrey Read, task manager for the project. According to the manager, these benefits include improving water quality in ambient rivers that are currently seriously polluted; reducing water pollution-related diseases and surface and groundwater pollution near water intakes; expanding coverage of waste water collection, treatment and disposal for the urban populations of Jinzhou, Panjin and Yingkou cities. Liaoning is a coastal province in northeast China, and is a key link between China's northeast economic zone and the Bohai Sea Rim economic zone. The project is the first stage of Liaoning's efforts towards meeting its objective of the environmental recovery of the basin. The project cost is estimated at 203.6 million U.S. dollars, and the remaining will be financed by local governments. |
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