CAF approves US $115M for Miagua II, water treatment project in Bolivia

(Caracas, July 3, 2012).- CAF –development bank of Latin America– approved US$115 million in financing for the second phase of Bolivia’s MIAGUA II water treatment program, in support of drinking water access and irrigation projects across the nation. The program was instituted in 2011.

CAF President Enrique García highlighted the program’s social impact. “The goal is to improve the benefitted communities’ quality of life and health through increasing drinking water services’ coverage and quality, and by achieving food sovereignty by promoting irrigation and agricultural production increase which, in the end, has a direct bearing on poverty reduction,” he said.

“In the last decade, countries have made a lot of progress in water treatment, and CAF’s commitment with the sector is reflected in the approval of over US$2 billion in the 2007-2011 period for financing this type of investments in the region.”

CAF’s comprehensive agenda, with the goal of promoting sustainable development and regional integration, places special emphasis on social inclusion and environmental protection. The multilateral bank’s policy on water is therefore based on four lines of action: basin management and protection; irrigation and agricultural development; drainage and flood control, and drinking water and water treatment services.

The US$144 million Miagua II program seeks to provide better drinking water services to more than 600,000 low-income people in almost every municipality in the country. It also intends to add more than 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) to arable land under irrigation, benefiting more than 30,000 families of farmers.