Asia needs $ 60 bln pa to improve urban infrastructure: ADB

Singapore, Mar 13 (UNI) The Asian Development Bank (ADB) today said about 60 billion dollars per year is needed to meet the demand for urban infrastructure services in Asia between 2006 and 2010.

The urban infrastructure services include water supply, sanitation, solid waste management, slum upgrading, urban roads and mass transit systems.

According to ADB, about 60 per cent of the urban Asian population lives in sprawling slums and squatter settlements while half of the population in major cities live without adequate supplies of clean water or access to sewage connections.

Over the next five years, ADB expects to invest about one billion dollars in urban water supply and sanitation, under the water financing programme. The total investment by ADB for urban infrastructure from 2007-2008 is more than 3.4 billion dollars.

''The rate of urbanisation that Asia is experiencing is a phenomenon that is unprecedented in human history,'' said Mr Shyam Bajpai, Deputy Director General, ADB's Regional and Sustainable Development Department.

The challenge is to achieve more balanced and sustainable urban development in Asian countries, Mr Bajpai said here during the signing of an MoU between ADB and Singapore to establish the Asia Training and Research Initiative for Urban Management (ATRIUM).

This initiative will enable knowledge sharing on good practices, as well as success and failures in urban planning in the region.

It will also address the organisational, legal and financial challenges in urban planning and management in the developing countries.

''This will share knowledge through well-designed training and research programmes for key decision makers concerned with policy formulation, planning and high level coordination of urban development,'' said Mr K E Seetharam, a Principal Water Supply and Sanitation Specialist with ADB.

ADB will work with the government agency, international enterprise Singapore, to cooperate on policy planning workshops, pilot projects and study visits to Singapore for urban sector policy makers from developing countries.

''Singapore is a success story in many ways, especially demonstrating the fact that cities and dynamic urban areas are central to the economies of nation states and to future economic growth,'' Mr Bajpai added.

The Singapore government will provide one million dollars to support the joint cooperation programmes to be carried out under the new initiative. ADB expects to make available grant contributions up to two million dollars.

UNI