The World Bank mission headed by project manager Andreas Rode is arriving September 19 in Baku to develop the project for improvement of water supply and drainage systems in small towns of Azerbaijan. WB Baku office representatives told Trend the nine-day visit would be devoted to discussions of water supply system restoration concept to have been submitted to the government yet in July 2006.
The bank is examining two versions of participation: by common sectoral approach that will enable eliminating blanks in this respect and tailor t to some certain standards, or selection of several regions of the country
Azeri government suggested WB accelerating the project and received the banks approval.
The bank was proposed to select regions and commence the operations. Azersu AO offered nine small towns to e included in the project. WB, in turn, was planning to restore water infrastructure together with all donors.
В"Thus they want to perform some operations, considering some to be better than now, and see what will happen laterВ", said governmental officials. Azeri government objected such an approach and suggested to perform the whole range of operations in selected regions as Presidents Order allocates three years for all these operations (related to water infrastructure restoration in the republic).
The project will be approved at WB Council of Directors early 2007. According to the preliminary information, WB stated its readiness to allot the $150mln credit under the project.