The proposed GEF-funded activities fall under GEF’s International Waters focal area and, within
this focal area, are consistent with the GEF’s Contaminant-based Operational Program (OP 10), ,
as they will demonstrate and encourage replicable innovative approaches to wastewater
collection and treatment and will lead to further investment that would reduce transboundary
pollution. The project is also consistent with GEF Strategic Priorities (SP) 1 and 3 for the
International Waters Focal Area in 2004-06. With respect to Priority 1, it will facilitate the
efforts of a nation that signed the Putrajaya Declaration1 to mobilize financial resources to
implement policy/institutional reforms and stress-reducing investments to address a priority
trans-boundary water issue (land-based pollution of a shared water body) that is highlighted in
the declaration. With respect to Priority 3, the project will demonstrate the feasibility of
innovative technical solutions, which accelerate investments in wastewater structures that reduce
pollution of the rivers and the contamination of an international water body. The combination of
these particular sewage collection and treatment technologies represent least-cost solutions that
generate a mix of local and global benefits.
The project received pipeline entry from GEF in May 2005. It has been endorsed by the GOP
focal point for the GEF. The project forms part of the WB/GEF Pollution Reduction Investment
Fund for the Large Marine Ecosystems of East Asia, which has the objective to remove
technical, institutional, and financial barriers in order to leverage investments in the reduction of
land-based marine pollution in the Seas of East Asia.