Speaking on the occasion of World Earth Day, Mr. Katsuo Matsumoto, Chief Representative, JICA India Office, said, “We understand the need for developing sustainable solutions for India and have therefore provided strategic counsel for smart innovations. We are collectively working on programs that build capacity to improve the environment. The idea is to employ a holistic approach to safeguard Mother Nature and to mitigate the effects of climate change.”
To this end, in 2019, JICA granted an ODA loan of 15 billion Japanese Yen (approximately INR 950 crore) for the Program for Japan-India Cooperative Actions towards Sustainable Development Goals in India, to help India’s policy actions on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The objective of the Program is to promote first-of-its-kind achievement of SDGs in India, especially in the area of environment sustenance, by supporting the efforts of the Government of India (GoI) to strengthen the policy framework and implementation mechanism. JICA is lending its support to India in achieving the SDGs by 2030.
Another way in which JICA contributes to sustainable development in India is by providing funds for metro rail projects in the country. The thought is to provide an alternate means of transportation to public which reduces pollution and eases traffic in the cities. JICA has provided ODA loans for metro rail projects in Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Ahmedabad, exceeding 1.3 trillion Japanese Yen (approximately INR 81,000 crore). The Delhi Metro has been certified by the United Nations (UN) as the First Metro Rail system in the world to get carbon credits for reducing emission of green-house gases.
JICA’s support to Forest and Natural resource in India started in 1991 and since then there have been 27 forestry projects in 14 states of India with an accumulated ODA loan of JPY 270 billion (INR 17,000 crore) which JICA has supported. All these projects have been instrumental in enhancing forest cover through plantation and regeneration activities, as well as biodiversity conservation and livelihood improvement of the forest-dependent community, covering over 3 million hectares.
In line with its commitment to make a profound difference to social development in India, JICA is supporting the development of infrastructure to provide clean water and sanitation facilities. Over the years, JICA has provided ODA loans of over 722 billion Japanese Yen (approximately INR 42,000 Crore) to develop clean water and sanitation facilities in India. JICA has supported efforts to reduce non-revenue water through the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, which has been used in projects such as the Goa Water Supply & Sewerage Project. In this project, three pilot sites in Goa (Curtorim, Khadpaband and Moira) were selected, where several activities were conducted to reduce non-revenue water, which led to the efficient distribution of safe water.
Throughout all its projects in India, JICA attempts to enable comprehensive growth in the environmental, social and economic dimensions.
