For the first time in Odisha, a State-level workshop for banks was organised by the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) along with Odisha Livelihoods Mission (OLM), UNICEF and Water.org here on Saturday.
The workshop was held with an objective to motivate the banks operating in the State to extend small loans to households not having water and sanitation facilities in their homes. The event also gave details on present status of water and sanitation in Odisha by UNICEF.
General Manager UCO Bank and convenor SLBC Arupananda Jena welcomed the august gathering of participants representing public sector banks, private sector banks, RRB, SFB, cooperative banks, Lead District Managers and OLM staff.
The keynote address was delivered by Additional CEO, Odisha Livelihoods Mission Dr Babita Mahapatra. She highlighted the real collaboration between stakeholders like banks, OLM, UNICEF.
Chief of water and sanitation, UNICEF India Nikolas Osbert highlighted the problems and solutions of WASH at Odisha. Similarly, WASH specialist, UNICEF Shipra Saxena also shared her experience in the Odisha context about Swachhata and WASH.
Regional Director, Water. org Manoj Gulati said Water.org will support banks in training, capacity building so as to equip them to extend loans to SHG leaders for water and sanitation.
Water.org has partnered six financial institutions in Odisha and they have given more than 1.7 lakh WASH loans so far with a disbursement of Rs 205 crore.
Sudhira Rath of Odisha Livelihoods Mission mentioned that OLM stives to eradicate poverty through livelihood programmes. The dasha sutra principles cover WASH and it has partnered with UNICEF and Water.org to promote alternate financing for access to WASH in 49 blocks of six districts in Odisha.
The success will be replicated across all districts in coming years, he told.
AGM and in charge of SLBC Odisha Lingaraj Nayak urged the banks which don’t have WASH loan policy to approach their head office to issue appropriate loan product.