WB team arrives Sept 24 to assess flood loss

FE Team | Published: September 22, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The World Bank (WB) will start assessment from September 24 of losses caused by the recent flood in Bangladesh in order to extend the WB's possible support to recover from the losses, official sources said.
The Washington-based donor is sending a team to Dhaka on September 24.
The Bank team will sit with different government agencies for conducting the flood impact assessment and will stay in Bangladesh up to October 6, sources in the Finance Ministry told the FE.
A senior finance ministry official said: "The global lender will conduct the flood impact assessment in Bangladesh during their 13-day visit here aiming to extend its necessary support to Bangladesh for the post-flood rehabilitation works."
"Though the Bank has already committed to provide US$75 million as budgetary support to Bangladesh to minimise pressure on the fiscal management, it can provide additional funds for the post-flood rehabilitation works," he said.
The Bank completed negotiations with the government in mid-September for the proposed $75 million budgetary support to Bangladesh. After getting the endorsement by the WB Board, the loan agreement is expected to be signed early next month, finance ministry sources said.
The finance ministry official stated that after the flood impact assessment, the Bank might cross-check it with the government and then would provide assistance to the country for its post-flood rehabilitation works.
"Usually the WB helps Bangladesh in construction of damaged roads, bridges, embankments and supply of safe drinking water to the flood-hit areas," he said citing the experience of the last devastating flood in 2004.
The official said the global lender provided around $200 million funds for rehabilitation works in Bangladesh to recover from the losses and damage after the flood of 2004.
Meanwhile, the 185-member multilateral donor agency has conducted a preliminary impact assessment of the recent flood where it projected that about 0.7 million homes, 0.7 million hectares of cropfield and 1900 kilometre of roads have been washed away.
In the meeting of the Local Consultative Group (LCG), a platform of the bilateral and multilateral donors working in Bangladesh, on August 8 in Dhaka, the Washington-based lender disclosed their preliminary impact assessment of the recent flood.
In its assessment report, the Bank estimated that the gross domestic product (GDP) growth might decline by 0.2 percentage points from the 7.0 per cent benchmark in the current fiscal 2007-08 due to recent floods.
The inflation is likely to increase, present comfortable balance of payment could be affected and the fiscal deficit might increase due to the recent flood in Bangladesh, the report quoted.