The World Bank is lending the Philippines $275 million to tackle huge volumes of untreated sewage that threaten to swallow the capital Manila, the lender said Wednesday.
The loan would be reinvested by a government bank into Manila Water Co. and Maynilad Water Services projects to boost the two utilities' household wastewater collection and treatment systems, the World Bank said.

JAIPUR: The state cabinet on Wednesday approved allotment of nearly 400 hectares land near Sariska to the forest department in return for the land acquired in Jaipur for the Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojana meant to rehabilitate slum dwellers.

Decisions related to salaries and perks of chairperson and members of the state human rights commission, lawyers' welfare, increase in study leave for doctors and enhancing the policemen's allowances were also taken at the meeting.

The government took no action against an agency contracted to complete the Dharavi survey that inflated the number of households in the area in its final report as well as outsourced a portion of its work to another agency with questionable scruples. In October 2007, the government contracted the Maharashtra Social Housing and Action League (MASHAL) to conduct a plane table survey and baseline survey (BSES) of all slum-dwellers within three months at an estimated cost of Rs1.40 crore as part of the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP).

The Delhi government on Monday decided to expedite the construction of around 70,000 low-cost flats for slum dwellers while asking the concerned department to immediately start distribution of 14,000 flats completed.

The 14,000 flats will be distributed among the residents of the slums which have come up on land owned by the city government and Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB).

Countries in Asia and the Pacific must strike a balance between rising prosperity and rising emission as their success or failure will have repercussions worldwide, a latest report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has said.

"The Asia-Pacific region must continue to grow economically to lift millions out of poverty, but it must also respond to climate change to survive. Growing first and cleaning up later is no longer an option, according to "One Plant to Share: Sustaining Human Progress in a Changing Climate" released by the UNDP on Thursday.