Kathmandu, July 24:

The UN-HABITAT is providing US $201,486 to the ADB-funded Small Town Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project (STWSSP) that will upgrade water and sanitation facilities.

An agreement on this behalf was signed today at the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS) between an officer of the department and the UN-HABITAT. A capacity building programme for the poor in selected four small towns — Parsa, Khair-anitar, Bhantipur and Lekhnath — will be implemented soon by the DWSS, Town Development Fund (TDF).

The UN-HABITAT will provide a grant of US $201,486 for this.

Besides this, US $47,300 donated by the DWSS, US $6,050 by the TDF and US $64,000 from the community, will take the budget of the project to a total of US $329,436.

“The main objective of this project is to establish a sustainable management of water supply and sanitation with adequate service delivery mechanisms targeting specially the poor in four towns by enhancing the capacity of users’ communities,” said Dr Roshan Raj Shrestha, chief technical advisor to the Water for Asian Cities Programme of UN-HABITAT. He added that the new project would work as a post-construction support for the areas of the STWSSP.

A water quality monitoring system will be established among others.