The Government’s Swachchh Bharat Mission got global boost on Tuesday with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Bill and Milinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) agreeing to provide assistance in the critical areas of capacity building of implementing agencies to ensure better sanitation.
The USAID has inked a pact with the Urban Development Ministry while BGMF signed a Memorandum of Cooperation. These Memoranda were signed by Shankar Aggarwal, Urban Development Secretary and John Beed, Country Director of USAID and Girindre Beehary, Country Director, BMGF, said a statement from the Urban Development Ministry. The Memoranda were signed in presence of Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu and US Ambassador to India, Richard Verma.
The USAID will assist in knowledge exchange and identification and sharing of best practices for water and sanitation services, provide technical support and promote public private partnership. The USAID is likely to spend about $2.50 million per year on these activities.
Similarly, BMGF will provide technical and management support and assistance in the implementation of the mission for coordination of decentralised and non-sewered sanitation solutions, implementation and management through skill development focusing on towns located along the Ganga river at a cost of $2.50 million annually.