WASHINGTON, JUNE 16, 2023 – The World Bank’s Board of Directors today approved a $150 million loan to support the Resilient Kerala Program to continue strengthening the Indian state’s preparedness against natural disasters, climate change impacts, and disease outbreaks. This additional financing will further deepen Kerala’s resilience in the critical areas of coastal erosion and water resource management.
Kerala is highly vulnerable to natural disasters and prone to the effects of climate change, given its location along the Southern Indian coast. In 2021, floods and landslides in the state led to several deaths and damages of around $100 million. Recurring disasters such as these have left devastating impacts on the livelihoods of vulnerable groups, especially women farmers and fisherwomen.
This financing complements the 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.
“The additional financing will help scale up the coverage of the original program from four to nine coastal districts in the state,” said Elif Ayhan, Balakrishna Menon Parameswaran, Natsuko Kikutake and Deepak Singh, Task Team Leaders for the project. “By building the state’s technical capacities, this new financing will focus on improving its ability to plan, budget, and implement initiatives that will help Kerala achieve climate resilience.”
The $150 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has a final maturity of 14 years, including a grace period of six years.
