$80m loan for irrigation system

The World Bank has approved an $80 million loan for the Project to rehabilitate and reform irrigation in Romania. The project is made up of four components and targets the rehabilitation of the irrigation infrastructure, institutional reform, technology assimilation in view of reducing the energy consumption, water management, as well as project management. The World Bank says the project is intended to ensure a fair and more efficient use of the water for irrigation in order to obtain stable crops by making the farmers and the institutions in this field change their attitude, as well as improving agricultural productivity. The direct beneficiaries of this project will be about 40,000 families of farmers and workers of farming associations. More than 100 water users associations will get support, too. “The project will also benefit the large farming associations that extensively grow tomatoes, beans or industrial plants such as sunflowers,” the World Bank says. The total cost of the project is $103 million, with $80 million lent by the World Bank, $20.7 million in a contribution from the Government and $2.3 million – the contribution of local communities. ZF