ADB commits $81.2m to Indonesia

ADB commits $81.2m to Indonesia

Indonesia will get US$81.2 million in loans and grants for clean water access and sanitation facilities, the Asian Development Bank said on Thursday in an e-mailed statement.

The Manila-based bank said $64.7 million will be in low- interest loans and another $16.5 million in emergency assistance grants.

The loans are targeted at 1,000 communities in 20 districts in the provinces of West and Central Kalimantan on the Indonesian side of Borneo, as well as Jambi and Bengkulu provinces on Sumatra island.

The project to provide clean water and sanitation will be completed by 2011, the bank said.

Only 15 percent of rural Indonesian households have access to piped water, the bank said in the statement. Relying on groundwater, rainwater and springs or rivers has resulted in water-borne diseases, it said.

Aceh province and Nias island off the coast of North Sumatra will benefit from the grant to help five districts with 500 communities, the statement said.

A Dec. 26 earthquake and ensuing tsunami left more than 270,000 people dead or missing in countries from Somalia to Indonesia's Aceh province.

More than 220,000 of the dead and missing were from Aceh. -- Bloomberg