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The inhabitants of 1,400 villages in Gaibanda and Jamalpur districts would be benefited as the government is going to complete 500 ongoing infrastructural projects including arsenic free safe water project within the next two years, reports BSS.
With the assistance of World Bank, Social Development Foundation (SDF), a development organisation under the Ministry of Finance, constructed 1,400 km roads, 1,562 culverts and is setting up 1,936 hand tube wells. The projects are being implemented with client participation of the community development planners during last three years, Managing Director of SDF Hafiz Uddin Khan told the news agency.
"About 500 community planners from 500 villages had prepared plans for development of their own areas to rehabilitate poor, construct small bridges and culverts, repair school buildings, set up markets, and tube wells for arsenic free safe water," he added.
Khan, a former Secretary of the Disaster Management Ministry, said the development initiatives that have been implemented in Gaibandha and Jamalpur districts through people's participation under Social Investment Programme Project (SIPP) had brought a new dimension of development approach in Northern districts.
Aimed at government's firm commitment to reduce the rate of poverty by 2010 through poverty alleviation programmes and PRSP (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper), SDF started its development initiatives in 2001, he added.
The people of the villages have so far contributed more than Tk 30 million in cash for construction work of 900 sub-projects under SIPP. The communities have contributed about 15 per cent of total expenditure for construction and rehabilitation work of which 10 per cent is given in cash and 5.0 per cent with labour. The remaining 85 per cent of the expenditure is provided by SDF.
SIPP, with key objectives to ensure community participation in the development process and to identify their needs on the basis of priority, help the community people prepare their work plan to complete prioritised work.
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