World Bank approves $150 mn loan to support Resilient Kerala Program

Thiruvananthapuram, June 17 (IANS) The World Bank's Board of Directors has approved a $150 million loan to support the Resilient Kerala Program to continue strengthening the state's preparedness against natural disasters, climate change impacts, and disease outbreaks.

This financing complements the World Bank's earlier investment of $125 million and the overall support of the two projects is expected to protect nearly 5 million people from the impacts of floods.

Auguste Tano Kouame, the World Bank's Country Director for India, said through this additional financing, the World Bank will continue supporting Kerala in increasing its resilience to climate change.

"The project will focus on addressing coastal erosion along vulnerable areas of the state - impacting millions of lives," said Kouame.

The additional financing will expand and deepen the state's resilience to mitigate impacts of coastal erosion by building a shoreline management plan.

The plan will assess the current and future shoreline changes in the state and create policies to address the risks to environmental resources, human settlements, and infrastructure along the coast.

The project will help the state develop a climate budget and a roadmap to help fill gaps in the state's open data and digital systems to reduce people's vulnerability to natural hazards. Currently, satellite maps, risk maps and sectoral data are not integrated into a single platform, leading to gaps in planning and execution of public sector investments.

After the devastating floods and landslides of 2018, the World Bank had invested in building Kerala's capabilities to respond to shocks to the state's economy and prevent the loss of lives, assets, and livelihoods.