Improving rural infrastructure

The World Bank has agreed to lend Mali’s government US $115.1 million to help it reduce poverty and strengthen basic rural infrastructure. The funds will go to a 10-year National Rural Infrastructure Project designed to improve irrigation, rehabilitate roads, and supply clean water and sanitation services to rural areas, the World Bank reported. It said the governments of Mali and The Netherlands, along with the beneficiaries, would contribute US $22.7 million to the project, which also aims to increase food security through higher, sustainable and more reliable farm production. Over the past 30 years, Mali has experienced declining and erratic rainfall and increased desertification. Severe droughts in the 1980s have left an estimated 1.4 million rural residents highly vulnerable to food shortages, the World Bank noted.