Government signs ADB agreement for water programmes

Mozambique has signed two loan and grant agreements worth US $30 million with the African Development Bank (ADB) to finance urban water supply and sanitation programmes. The project aims to improve the access, quality and sustainability of water supply and sanitation services in low-income urban areas in Chokwe, Inhambane, Maxixe and Xai-Xai in the south of the country. It would include training programmes on sanitation, environment, solid waste management, HIV/AIDS and malaria. An ADB statement said the project hopes to increase the water supply coverage rate from 37 percent to 65 percent, and by 2007 reduce waterborne diseases. Southern Mozambique lies in the southern African drought belt and is prone to shortages of food and safe drinking water. Access to a safe water supply would also reduce the time spent collecting water, allowing women more time for income-generating activities, and children, particularly girls, to spend more time at school. Vice-president of the ADB, Theodore Nkodo, and Mozambique's Finance Minister Luisa Diogo, signed the agreement on Wednesday.