December 20, 2019
World Bank grants SACEP to implement a US$ 40 Million "Plastic Waste Free Rivers and Seas" project in South Asia. In this connection a bi-lateral deliberation of SACEP and the visiting mission of the World Bank took place on 17 – 18 December 2019 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The visiting World Bank mission briefed the SACEP team headed by Dr. Abas Basir, Director General on the various steps and procedures to be followed in preparing this very important project.
The project targets a long-term goal of eliminating leakage of plastics into the marine environment across the South Asia Region, which can only be achieved beyond the life of the project. The project seeks to catalyze actions that reduce the flow of plastic pollution into South Asian seas. This would be accomplished inter alia by supporting competitive block grants, facilitating/supporting public-private sector partnerships and investments in circular economy transitions and refining policies and incentive structures, bottom-up action, education and behavior change.
At the end of the deliberation, both the parties agreed to move into the next step of deliberation and Dr. Abas Basir, Director General of SACEP thanks the visiting mission of World Bank for their support extended to SACEP in implementing such a significant project in South Asia.
The Project Information Document (PID) could be viewed from Here
