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Minsa Potable Water Project |
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Panama News -
Panama Health News
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Panamanian national health ministry Minsa will begin works in August or September on a US$39.4mn, five-year project to improve potable water and sanitation services in rural and impoverished urban areas, a Minsa official told BNamericas.
Minsa aims to begin potable water, sanitation project by September in Panama
Written by: Michale Ford
Complete Story
Source: Business News Americas
Panamanian national health ministry Minsa will begin works in August or September on a US$39.4mn, five-year project to improve potable water and sanitation services in rural and impoverished urban areas, a Minsa official told BNamericas.
The project will be financed with a loan from the World Bank, plus US$8.0mn in counterpart financing from the Panamanian government, said the official.
While Minsa has already agreed to the loan with the national finance ministry, World Bank approval still depends on Minsa's selection of a trust agent to manage project funding, and two other conditions, the official said.
The health ministry is currently receiving proposals from companies interested in managing the loan funds, and bids must be submitted in the next two days, said the official, adding that after this Minsa is expected to select a company in the next two months, and submit their selection to the bank for approval.
The project will have a US$10mn component focusing on water and sanitation in marginal urban areas, Minsa rural health director Darío Delgado told BNamericas.
Minsa is still selecting which communities will be included for this component, and those that are selected will determine which projects will be carried out, said Delgado.
The project will also include US$25mn to provide 600 new, small aqueduct systems for residents in the Ngöble-Buglé indigenous region, as well as western provinces Chiriquí and Bocas del Toro, near the border with Costa Rica, Delgado added.
About 300 of the new aqueduct systems will be built over the next two years, to administer water to communities that currently do not receive it, Delgado said.
Other works will include the construction and connection of a latrine system, and the rehabilitation of some existing aqueducts in these areas, he added.
The construction of these aqueducts will be carried out through various contracts, to design, build, and turn over the aqueducts to community organizations, which will be formed and equipped through the program to manage the systems upon their completion, the first Minsa official said.
In order to fast-track the works, Minsa has already designed construction works for roughly 45 of the new aqueduct systems, the official added.
Other aspects of the project include the formation of a national policy, which envisions the creation of an inter-institutional information system, and a component to strengthen national water and sewage utility Idaan, said Delgado.
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