World Bank approves US $70m water project

The World Bank approved a US $70-million project on Wednesday to expand water supplies to Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou. The bank reported on Wednesday that the project would help lessen the “acute water shortages” in the city of 980,000. This segment of the project will help increase access to adequate and reliable water sources by expanding the distribution of tertiary water networks and improving urban water sub-sector management, the bank reported. This is part of a larger programme involving 11 other donors, the bank said. As part of the programme, donors have financed a dam at Ziga, 81 km northeast of the capital, with its 200-million-cubic-metre reservoir. This will feed the treatment plant and Ouagadougou. Currently the National Office for Water and Sanitation is unable to meet the needs of the capital whose population has doubled in the past 15 years, the bank reported. It added that the present average annual growth rate of 4.6 percent is not expected to decrease for the next 10 years. Burkina Faso is within the water-scarce Sahel belt of West Africa. The bank reported that 60 percent of Ouagadougou experience severe water shortages during the three hottest months of the year. The increase in reliable supplies of water, the bank reported, would reduce the risk of water contamination. The bank’s lending arm for the poorest countries, the International Development Association, will provide $70 million for the project. The country has 10 years before it begins repaying the loan which is due in 40 years. The government and other donors will provide an additional $135.88 million to the project.