Agreements on urban water and sanitation

The African Development Bank has approved two agreements totalling 33.33 million US dollars to finance an urban water supply, sanitation and institutional support project in Mozambique.

The project will improve the access, quality and sustainability of water supply and sanitation services in the southern cities of Chokwe, Inhambane, Maxixe and Xai-Xai. It will rehabilitate and extend these services to low-income urban areas. One of the aims of the project is to enable the private sector to participate in the water supply services in these cities.

The project will also involve public awareness and training programmes on sanitation, environment, solid waste management, HIV/AIDS and malaria issues.

The project is intended to improve the standard of living of people in these areas by increasing the water supply coverage rate from 37 to 65 per cent and reduce the occurrence of water borne diseases to a quarter by 2007. Improving access to safe water will also reduce the time spent collecting water, giving people more time to earn income, and for children to spend more time at school.

The agreement was signed on 3 June by Theodore Nkodo, Vice-President of the African Development Bank (ADB) and Mozambique's Finance Minister Luisa Diogo. The ADB has operated in Mozambique since 1977 and agreements with the Bank have amounted to over a billion dollars. (AIM, Maputo)