World Bank offers $100 million for water and sanitation

The World Bank has approved US $100 million to expand safe drinking water and sanitation facilities to benefit three million people in Ethiopia over five years, the bank reported on Wednesday. The $75 million credit and $25 million grant would assist towns and rural communities to plan, construct and maintain improved water supply facilities, the bank said. It will also be used to build the capacity of local governments, regions and the private sector to manage decentralised water and sanitation systems. "Approximately 5,500 water supply schemes will benefit nearly three million people in some 3,500 communities and 50 towns," Yitbarek Tessema, the World Bank's team leader for the project, was quoted as saying in a statement. The World Bank support will fund the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation component of the project, the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation, town water boards and water operators, and a programme support component. It will also expand pastoralist water supply, promote hygiene and sanitation, and boost the development of hand-dug wells, spring catchments, and boreholes to serve domestic needs. "The reliable, safe, and affordable water supply that the project sets out to provide will improve the income and health of the population, and thereby underpin economic development while accelerating poverty reduction," Tessema added. Meanwhile, the African Development Fund is to provide $1.5 million for the Women’s Affairs Office. The project would support training, procurement of equipment, rehabilitation of women’s training centres and the provision of technical assistance to support the office, a statement issued by the African Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday said. According to the ADB, the support would strengthen the institutional and human capacity of the Women’s Affairs Office in the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s Office and the Women's Affairs Department of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, and in selected regional women’s affairs offices.