WASHINGTON, July 25, 2013 – The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved US$178 million IDA* credit to help the Government of Mozambique increase access to clean water for people living in Mozambique’s largest urban area – the Greater Maputo Area. The project will equally benefit women and girls who spend considerable time each day fetching water for their family.
“The government of Mozambique has made steady progress in building a sustainable water system to provide access to clean water for many households in its quickly growing urban areas,” says Laurence C. Clarke, World Bank Country Director for Mozambique. “We are happy to support this project that will bring improved health and water security to over 100,000 families living in the Greater Maputo Area.”
Today’s funds will support the Greater Maputo Water Supply Expansion Project, designed as part of the government’s recently updated National Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Strategy. The project contributes to the Government’s third Poverty Reduction Action Plan 2011-2014 (Plano de Acção para a Redução da Pobreza, PARP ); the third pillar of which seeks to improve access to, and use of water and enable access to safe sanitation, to which the project will contribute directly. The project’s works will connect approximately 100,000 households to the formal water supply system in Greater Maputo.
The project will help the government build a 60,000 m3/day water treatment plant that will draw raw water from the Corumana dam, as well as support the construction of approximately 93 kilometers of transmission pipeline, with a capacity of 120,000 m3/day of water, as well as reservoirs, pumping stations, and ancillary works.
“Mozambique is vulnerable to periodic tropical cyclones during the summer months that periodically flood the intake system and water treatment plant of the existent water works,” says Jamal Saghir, Director for Sustainable Development in the Africa Region. “This project will support the creation of a water system that is climate resilient and that brings clean water for drinking, cooking and cleaning for the families in the Greater Maputo Area.”
The project will also provide technical assistance to the government’s Water Supply Asset Holding and Investment Fund (Fundo de Investimento e Património do Abastecimento de Água - FIPAG) and capacity building and operational support to the independent Water Regulatory Council (Conselho de Regulação de Águas - CRA).
“Approximately 17 percent of under-five deaths in Mozambique are the result of diarrheal diseases, primarily caused by poor water and sanitation,” says Luiz Claudio Martins Tavares, Task Team Leader for the project. “The funds approved today will transport clean, treated water directly to households in the Greater Maputo Area, bringing families an opportunity for improved health, and more time in each day for busy women and girls.”
The World Bank's International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, helps the world's poorest countries by providing zero-interest financing and grants for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people's lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world's 82 poorest countries, 40 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change for 1.8 billion people living on less than $2 a day. Between 2003 and 2013, IDA provided $256 billion in financing for 3,787 projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, benefiting on average, 36 African countries a year.
