Bangladesh gets $377 million power and water loans

The World Bank has agreed to lend Bangladesh $102 million for a water project that could benefit two million households and $275 million to held reduce the country's power deficit.
The power loan is for a $400 million project to build a 300 megawatt (MW) power plant at Siddhirganj, just outside Dhaka, that will complement a 240 MW plant being financed by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank said. Bangladesh power demand of around 5000 MW outstrips supply of up to 3300 MW.
"The World Bank is supporting ...(the) plant ... to reduce the very large deficits of generation of electricity at peak times that the country now experiencing," a World Bank statement said on Wednesday. The 7-year water project in selected parts of the country is designed to improve flood control, drainage and irrigation systems, a senior official at Bangladesh's finance ministry said.
The World Bank is providing just over $102 million of the total $136.70 million cost of the project. The remainder of the funding is to come from Bangladesh and the Netherlands, officials said.