World Bank helps E. Java urban development
World Bank helps E. Java urban development
JAKARTA (JP): The World Bank has approved a US$142.7 million
loan for the improvement of urban infrastructure and services in
East Java through the Second East Java Urban Development Project.
The loan will be made at the bank's standard variable interest
rate, currently 6.98 percent, for 20 years, including a five-year
grace period.
According to a statement issued by the bank and made available
here yesterday, the project will cost $244.2 million, with the
balance coming from the government, water enterprises, provincial
administrations and local communities.
The project is expected to provide the urban infrastructure
needs of cities and towns which are not addressed under the on-
going East Java-Bali Urban Development Project, which began in
March, 1991. In the long run, it is also expected to boost the
productivity of East Java's industrial sector.
East Java is Indonesia's second most populous province and has
the highest number of poor residents.
Indonesia's urban population exceeds 55 million and is growing
at more than five percent a year, more than twice the national
population's growth rate.
Nationwide, only a quarter of urban households have direct
access to piped water, another 15 percent buy drinking water from
vendors or shops and the rest rely on shallow wells or surface
water courses, most of which are polluted by inadequately-treated
waste-water.
Meanwhile, only about 40 percent of urban households have
access to adequate sanitation facilities and in larger cities
there are serious industrial water supply and waste disposal
problems.
East Java has the largest industrial complex in Indonesia in
terms of employment and establishments, and contributes at least
21 percent of the national value-added manufacturing products.
It also produces the highest non-oil gross domestic product of
all Indonesian provinces.
Inadequate infrastructure investments, however, make
production and distribution inefficient. In 1994 several hundred
approved foreign investment applications failed to materialize
due in part to deficiencies in water supply, transport and waste
disposal. (pwn)