The water management project will strengthen Andhra Pradesh’s institutional capacity for multisectoral planning, development and management of its water resources.

The project will also improve irrigation on a sustainable basis to increase the productivity of irrigated agriculture in Nagarjuna Sagar scheme, a large-scale hydropower project that supplies water to industries, drinking water to rural and urban areas and irrigation water for about 0.9 million hectares of land.

“Agriculture is a vital sector in Andhra Pradesh, contributing about 29 percent of its gross domestic product and employing majority of the rural population,” said R S. Pathak, senior irrigation engineer and project team leader at the bank.

The bank blamed the system’s poor maintenance and irrigation management for the past 40 years for its deteriorated condition, thus leaving areas with inadequate water supply.

The loan for the project will come from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Meanwhile, through the industrial pollution management project, the bank will address the abundance of hazardous waste released by industries across India. According to a recent government report, about 36,000 Indian industries generate approximately 6.2 million tons of waste annually.

Significant amounts of industrial sludge and effluents containing heavy metals are dumped in open areas and rivers, around residential compounds and on farm land in various locations, affecting the health of local communities.

To address this problem, the project will support the development of a policy, institutional and methodological framework for a national program of rehabilitation of polluted sites. The project will also establish concrete human and technical capacity in specific state agencies to undertake environmentally sound remediation of several pilot polluted sites.

“The implicit logic of the project is to expand the institutional capacity, ease the regulatory gaps and demonstrate appropriate clean up remediation techniques,” said Charles Cormier, the bank’s county sector coordinator for social, environment and water resources and the project’s team leader.