$47m package approved for big Malawi water programme
The continenal lender says that the package includes a $24,658-million loan and a $17,387-million grant from its African Development Fund and another grant of €3,520-million from its Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative Trust Fund.
"The AfDB has made available the funds to complement the Malawi government's efforts to achieve sustainable development and poverty reduction," says the bank.
It says the funds will finance three components of the national water development programme, which include rural water supply and sanitation, water resource management, capacity building and programme management.
"For the rural areas, this translates into improved water supply and sanitation for 4,45-million people . . . the bank financing will serve 1,21-million of these people."
The national water development programme is aimed at improving water supply services in all areas of Malawi, but the AfDB will focus on four districts, namely Malanje, Zomba and Machinga in the southern region of the Southern African country, and Lilongwe, in the central region.
The other component of the programme, the urban water supply project, involves the rehabilitation and extension of water supply systems in the major cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe and in other urban centres.
In Blantyre, funds are being pumped into projects to increase the pumping and treatment capacity and to expand off-peak water storage and distribution.
In Lilongwe, the programme is focused on the construction of a substitute pipeline, the procurement of customer meters and network expansion.
The World Bank is the lead financier for the second phase of the national water development programme, with the other financiers being the European Union and the government of the Netherlands.
The programme has a duration of five year project that is meant to ensure that a total of 500,000 people have new or improved water supply services, 4,040 connections are rehabilitated, 1,700 new community water points are established, 3,700 new water connections are installed, and about 2, 25-million people have improved sanitation.
Through the programme, Malawi aims at having over 80% coverage for improved water supply and sanitation by 2015.
Malawi has already implemented the first phase of the national water development programme at a cost of $850-million, which was sourced from the World Bank and other financiers.
