water well africa.jpg
A family collecting water from a well
The programme intends to improve access to water and sanitation, which currently stand at an aggregate of 53% and 76% respectively across the four towns, to 100%, benefiting the towns’ 635,000 residents and indirectly helping a further 227,000 people who live nearby.
The AfDB said the residents of Adama, Adwa, Bichena and Gode will see improvements in health as access to water and sanitation facilities, the reliability of supply increases and water-borne diseases become less frequent.
The project also hopes to reap socio-economic development benefits with improvements in revenue collection efficiency and by increasing private sector involvement in the towns, spurring their development.
The programme is part of the Ethiopian governments Second Growth and Transformation Plan 2016-20, which accorded the water sector high importance.
On Tuesday, the AfDB announced the launch of a $26m grant to support reforms to the water sector of Sudan’s West Kordofan State as well as some federal water institutions.
Several localities in the state lack access to basic water and sanitation facilities. The project aims to build a sustainable water and sanitation sector through reforms to water sector policy and institutions, capacity development for federal and state staff and increasing the resilience of water supply points and sanitation facilities.
