A US$35 million grant from Spain and another US$35 million low-interest loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) couldn't have come at a better time. With the risk of cholera spreading from Haiti, the funding will go towards increasing access to water and sanitation in some of the poorest provinces, precisely on the border with Haiti. The funds will extend services to at least 205,000 people in rural and peri-urban communities, according to an IDB press release.
The Spanish Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation in Latin America and the Caribbean (Spanish Fund) has partnered with the IDB to finance the projects. They will benefit poor communities in Independencia, Barahona, Bahoruco, San Juan and Elias Pina in the southwest and in San Pedro de Macoris in the east, and San Cristobal to the west of Santo Domingo.
Local entities working with the program are the Instituto Nacional de Aguas Potables y Alcantarillados (INAPA, the national water and sanitation institute) and in rural areas, the service will be delegated to Asociaciones Comunitarias de Acueductos Rurales (rural community water associations). In both cases, the program will provide administrative, technical and operational support to these offices as well as human resources, training and equipment.
By 2015, the program is expected to finance the construction or rehabilitation of at least 100 water and sanitation systems in rural areas and build or rehabilitate at least 20 water systems in urban and peri-urban areas along with at least 12 sanitation systems, potentially benefitting approximately 205,000 people.

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