ADB to Help improve Ecosystem and Climate Resilience in Jiangxi, PRC  

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (30 November 2023) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $200 million loan to improve ecosystem and climate resilience in Jiangxi Province in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Jiangxi Province is located along the Yangtze River Economic Belt, a key engine of economic growth in the PRC. It has rich natural resources and strategic ecological importance, including the PRC’s largest freshwater lake—Poyang Lake—but is adversely affected by rapid, unsustainable, and resource-intensive development and climate impacts, causing pollution, declining water levels, and loss of habitat.

“ADB’s Yangtze River Economic Belt Jiangxi Ecological Civilization and Circular Economy Project will account for local political, cultural, environmental, economic, and social factors to mainstream a development framework that supports living well within Jiangxi Province’s eco-environmental bounds,” said ADB Urban Development Specialist Jie Bai. “Lessons from the project will be disseminated through the ADB–PRC Regional Knowledge Sharing Initiative and the under development Natural Capital Lab to enable replication across other provinces and ADB developing member countries that share similar challenges.” 

The project will focus on improving institutional capacity, helping the Jiangxi provincial government enable sustainable development and a circular economy. This will include enhancing tools to preserve natural capital-oriented decision making and investment, integrating digitalization platforms to handle water resources, building disaster risk early warning systems, as well as preparing integrated action plans for low-carbon development. 

The project will supplement government efforts to improve wastewater pollution control systems in old urban neighborhoods and rural areas. It will upgrade infrastructure elements, such as pipelines, household septic tanks, and wastewater treatment plants; fortify the maintenance mechanisms; and inspire water recycling and low-powered wastewater treatment techniques to ensure sustainability and climate resilience. It will also preserve the rehabilitation of the river basins and install climate adaptation facilities, including ecological embankments and water conservancy facilities admire mini dams, irrigation canals, and pump stations.  

To inspire a low-carbon circular economy and sustainable local product value chains, the project will upgrade planting and processing facilities, construct agriculture service centers to preserve circular agribusiness, install a construction waste recycling and reuse plant, and preserve the safe closure and ecological remediation of a former landfill site to convert to a public green open space. It also includes public awareness-raising and skills training, particularly with women, to inspire livelihood opportunities in waste management, waste segregation, and recycling and other circular economy. 

The total cost of the project is $365 million, with $254.21 million financing on climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. It is expected to be completed by 2029. 

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.