Govt urges World Bank to restructure KWSSIP
ISLAMABAD: The government has requested the World Bank for restructuring of Karachi Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project (KWSSIP) to complete activities that suffered from the implementation delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 floods and delays in procurement of critical activities.
Official documents revealed that this restructuring for KWSSIP involves: (i) change in client name, (ii) closing date extension and subsequent change in disbursement and implementation schedule, (iii) reallocation between expenditure categories, and (iv) change in results framework.
The $40 million International Bank for Reconstruction and Development loan for KWSSIP was approved on June 27, 2019. The project is co-financed with a loan of $40 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The Project Development Objective (PDO) is to improve access to safe water services in Karachi and to increase the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB)'s financial and operational performance.
World Bank approves $240m for Karachi's water & sanitation project
The current project closing date is June 30, 2025. The project comprises three components: Component 1—Operational and Enabling Environment Reform; Component 2—Infrastructure Investments; and Component 3—Project Management and Studies. This is the first restructuring of the project. The implementation arrangements of the projects will remain the same.
Government has requested a twelve-month project closing date extension for both the World Bank and the AIIB's loans until June 30, 2026. This extension is required to complete activities that suffered from the implementation delay due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the 2022 floods and delays in procurement of critical activities (bulk meters and customer meters).
Activities include the establishment of pilot District Metering Areas (DMAs), works to reduce energy consumption, development of an asset management program, completion of the water and sewerage masterplan and commissioning of the chlorination dosing stations will be completed within the 12 months closing date extension and hence, achieving the PDOs.
Due to higher-than-expected costs in component 1 for building customer service centers and of the Institutional Reform Studies, some funding is reallocated from components 2 and 3 to component 1. Relative to the original investment plan at preparation, this will result in a reduced scope of energy efficiency investments in component 2 and of studies conducted in component 3. It is proposed to change the target date of all unachieved indicators to match the closing date extension as all indicators are expected to be achieved by then.
Progress toward achieving the PDO and Implementation Progress are rated Moderately Satisfactory as of the last Implementation Status and Results Report (ISR) in November 2024. The performance ratings for components, financial management, project management, procurement, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and safeguards are also moderately satisfactory.
As of May 6, 2025, disbursement from the IBRD allocation reached $30.62 million out of the allocated budget of $40 million (76.55 per cent) in addition to $33.248mn (83.12 per cent) from the AIIB co-financing loan.
More than 90 percent of the project proceeds are committed in signed contracts and the remaining balance are planned to be fully committed by June 30, 2025, through variation orders to some ongoing works contracts and awarding of the remaining studies envisioned under the project such as the updating of the Geographical Information System (GIS) and the development of asset management system.
Implementation progress, financial utilisation, and reforms momentum have improved recently (though the latter is still slow). The Project is expected to utilize around $2.0 million by June 30, 2025. The overall risk rating under SORT was changed in the last ISR from High to Substantial recognising improvements in handling risk mitigation measures.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
17 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Zardari launches ‘Benazir Hunarmand Programme'
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari formally launched the Benazir Hunarmand Programme saying every household should be equipped with the tools of learning and education. The president expressed these views while addressing a ceremony held at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Saturday. He underscored the importance of education and skill development, stating that every household should be equipped with the tools of learning and education. He said that BISP was based on the philosophy of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto whose legacy was carried forward by Benazir Bhutto, who believed in inclusive prosperity and education for all. 'We are determined to realise her vision for the uplift of marginalised segments of society,' the president said. First Lady Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari was also present at the launch of the programme. Highlighting the importance of the Benazir Hunarmand Programme, President Zardari noted that skills development was crucial not only for national progress but also for preparing a skilled workforce to meet the growing demand in international markets. 'We should equip our youth with modern technical skills needed globally,' he remarked. He particularly stressed the significance of the nursing profession, calling it one of the most sought-after fields internationally, and urged that special priority should be given to training in this area. President Zardari also underlined the importance of learning foreign languages alongside modern skills to enable our youth to get jobs in foreign markets. Referring to his previous tenure, the president recalled that he had launched the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), which became a cornerstone of social protection in Pakistan. He expressed gratitude to former Finance Minister Naveed Qamar, acknowledging his valuable role in the launch and implementation of BISP. He said, 'Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) will be improved further and more programmes will be added.' The president said that the Benazir Hunarmand Programme is a continuation of that legacy, aimed at uplifting communities through empowerment and opportunity. He reiterated his resolve to ensure that the youth of Pakistan are provided with the skills, education, and opportunities necessary to build a prosperous country. The president said June 21 was an important day for Pakistan People's Party as it was the birthday of Benazir Bhutto. 'It is also a day of sorrow as we lost Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto who guided us with her wisdom and farsightedness,' he added. Chairperson Benazir Income Support Programme Senator Rubina Khalid said Benazir Income Support (BISP), since its inception 17 years ago, had become the largest social protection programme. Under the programme, women were declared head of the household and received financial help for their 10 million families, she added. BISP was also in the forefront to disburse timely financial assistance to flood affectees in 2022 and during the COVID pandemic, she noted. She said BISP had always been more than a safety net, it was a commitment to inclusion, dignity and transformation of people especially women. Benazir Hunarmand Programme, while using the database of BISP will create an empowered and self-reliant citizenry, which will be capable of participating productively in economic endeavours, she explained. The programme, she said, would offer practical and demand-driven training in multiple fields enabling critical economic and social change and causing poverty alleviation. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Express Tribune
a day ago
- Express Tribune
WB, IMF climate snub 'worrying': COP29 presidency
Participating world leaders and delegates pose for a family photo during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku. Photo: AFP The hosts of the most recent UN climate talks are worried international lenders are retreating from their commitments to help boost funding for developing countries' response to global warming. This anxiety has grown as the Trump administration has slashed foreign aid and discouraged US-based development lenders like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund from focussing on climate finance. Developing nations, excluding China, will need an estimated $1.3 trillion a year by 2035 in financial assistance to transition to renewable energy and climate-proof their economies from increasing weather extremes. But nowhere near this amount has been committed. At last year's UN COP29 summit in Azerbaijan, rich nations agreed to increase climate finance to $300 billion a year by 2035, an amount decried as woefully inadequate. Azerbaijan and Brazil, which is hosting this year's COP30 conference, have launched an initiative to plug the shortfall that includes expectations of "significant" contributions from international lenders. But so far only two — the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank — have responded to a call to engage the initiative with ideas, said COP29 president Mukhtar Babayev. "We call on their shareholders to urgently help us to address these concerns," he told climate negotiators at a high-level summit in the German city of Bonn this week. "We fear that a complex and volatile global environment is distracting" many of those expected to play a big role in bridging the climate finance gap, he added. His team travelled to Washington in April for the IMF and World Bank's spring meetings hoping to find the same enthusiasm for climate lending they had encountered a year earlier. But instead they found institutions "very much reluctant now to talk about climate at all", said Azerbaijan's top climate negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev. This was a "worrisome trend", he said, given expectations these lenders would extend the finance needed in the absence of other sources. "They're very much needed," he said. The United States, the World Bank's biggest shareholder, has sent a different message. On the sidelines of the April spring meetings, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the bank to focus on "dependable technologies" rather than "distortionary climate finance targets." This could mean investing in gas and other fossil fuel-based energy production, he said. Under the Paris Agreement, wealthy developed countries — those most responsible for global warming to date — are obligated to pay climate finance to poorer nations. AFP
Express Tribune
a day ago
- Express Tribune
Italy's immigration and emigration both soaring
The numbers of Italians leaving their country and of foreigners moving in have soared to the highest in a decade, official data showed on Friday, fuelling national concerns about brain drain, economic decline and immigration. Italy has a right-wing government elected in 2022 on a mandate to curb migrant arrivals, but also has a shrinking population and growing labour shortages, highlighting the need to attract foreign workers. Meanwhile the country's stagnant economy and low wages - salaries are below 1990 levels in inflation-adjusted terms - have been blamed for pushing many Italians to seek better fortunes abroad. Last year 382,071 foreigners moved to Italy, up from 378,372 in 2023 and the highest since 2014, statistics agency Istat said. In the same period, 155,732 Italians emigrated, up from 114,057 in 2023 and also the highest since 2014. The immigration figure beat the previous high for the last decade of 301,000 in 2017, and was well above that period's low of 191,766 from 2020 — the height of the Covid pandemic. The figure of almost 270,000 nationals emigrating in the two-year period from 2023 to 2024 was up around 40% compared to the previous two years. The two-year immigration figure for that period, of around 760,000, was up 31% from 2021-2022. The figures are derived from town registry offices, so are unlikely to reflect undocumented migration. Ukrainians made up the biggest national group among those who arrived in 2023-2024, Istat said, followed by Albanians, Bangladeshis, Moroccans, Romanians, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Argentines and Tunisians. As for the high number of emigrants, "it is more than plausible" that a significant number were "former immigrants" who moved abroad after acquiring Italian citizenship, Istat said. The agency also said Italy's poorer south was continuing to depopulate, noting that almost 1% of residents in Calabria, the region with the lowest per capita income, moved to central or northern areas during 2023-2024. Reuters
