The Asian Development Bank (ADB) today approved $385 million in financing to help improve the livability and community health of five cities in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cities Improvement Project will help to construct two clean water supply treatment facilities, three sewerage treatment facilities, and will rehabilitate dysfunctional tube wells among several other important subprojects in the cities of Abbottabad, Kohat, Mardan, Mingora, and Peshawar.

More than 3.5 million people will benefit from improved access to clean and safe water, reliable and integrated waste management and sanitation services, green urban spaces, and gender-friendly urban facilities. About 150,000 households will gain new connections to water supply systems and have smart water meters installed in their homes.

With its rapidly growing urban population, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is becoming more exposed to health risks due to deteriorating municipal services and the impacts of climate change. Strong, climate-resilient urban infrastructure combined with access to reliable services benefit people, the environment, and support sustainable development. This project will help address these challenges of urban centers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“Large urban projects are often delayed due to their inherent complexity and competing interests in limited urban space,” said ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov. “This project has used ADB’s project readiness financing facility to ensure detailed engineering design, safeguards assessments, and other critical preparatory work was completed in advance—a first for central and west Asia region. That will ensure the transformative benefits of this project will flow to the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province more quickly.”