Azerbaijan, Baku, March 9 / Trend A.Akhundov /
The World Bank (WB) has started implementation of Water Users Association Development Support Project (WUAP) in Azerbaijan, the WB Baku Office told Trend on Friday.
Earlier a mission of the WB led by project manager David Meyerbach visited Azerbaijan to launch the project. The review mission was in Baku from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3.
"Work under the project has already begun," the WB said.
The Azerbaijani government and World Bank signed a credit agreement to allocate $80 million to implement the WUAP project in October, 2011.
The International Development Association (IDA) allocated $76.8 million and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) allocated $3.2 million of the total amount of credit available. The share of the government in the project is $34.3 million. Total cost of the project is $114.3 million.
The project will increase the productivity of 760,000 small farms in 27 Azerbaijani regions, which promotes the rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage networks.
WUAP focuses on strengthening the potential of Water Users Associations (WUA), which are responsible for the management of irrigation systems. The project will include training and support for 379 associations, located on nearly 900,000 hectares. The project will also finance the restoration of almost 3,000 km of irrigation and drainage canals and structures.
Azerbaijan is a member of the World Bank since 1992. The bank's total obligations to the country during this period on 43 projects amounted to $ 2.9 billion.