Brazil gets loan of $485m for disaster aid

Jan 19, 2011 6:56 AM | By Sapa-AFP

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The World Bank says it would lend Brazil $485 million for rebuilding and disaster prevention efforts following devastating mudslides that killed more than 700 people.

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File Picture.
Photograph by: Reuben Goldberg

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"We expect the first tranche of the loan, worth $290 million, to be approved in the next few weeks," said the Bank's Brazil director Makhtar Diop on Tuesday.

"Meanwhile, we have reassigned $20 million from a loan earmarked for the Rural Rio Project to the state's emergency efforts," he said.

The announcement came after Brazil's new president Dilma Rousseff and other officials met with World Bank Vice President for Poverty Reduction Otaviano Canuto in Brasilia.

The World Bank has been preparing a new lending strategy for Brazil that is expected to be approved in July and will include disaster prevention funds.

Emergency crews were still hard at work recovering bodies and providing aid as the death toll from last week's catastrophic mudslides rose above 700, making it the worst such disaster in the country's history.

Rio's state authorities said another 14, 000 people were homeless or unable to return to unstable areas.

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