AfDB approves urban development strategy for African cities

In April 2011, the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group launched its new Urban Development Strategy. The Strategy is anchored on three pillars: infrastructure delivery, governance and private sector development.

The infrastructure development pillar emphasises delivery and expansion of basic infrastructure services, which includes water supply, sanitation, drainage and solid waste management services, and building capacity for maintenance of public infrastructure assets.

The Bank Group has since the 1960s allocated some 15-20% of its total cumulative operations financing directly or indirectly to urban development.

Most of the Bank‘s support for water supply and sanitation projects in major cities is currently in the form of traditional project loans or grants (in eligible countries). The Bank will continue to use all its private sector instruments (loans, guarantees and equity) to support private investments in water supply, sanitation and other urban services.

In water and sanitation schemes, where the ability to pay might be too low to ensure that a purely private scheme is financially viable, the Bank will explore the use of modified build-own-transfer (BOT) models. The Bank can help provide concessional financing to a water/wastewater treatment project and use its guarantee instrument to facilitate the mobilisation of commercial debt.

The AfDB’s target for 2010-2015 is to spend one-half of water and sanitation lending for urban systems.

Read the full strategy document:
The Bank Groups’s urban development strategy : transforming Africa’s cities and towns into engines of economic growth and social development. 22 p.

Source: AfDB, 29 Apr 2011

Zimbabwe and AfDB sign US$30 million agreement to improve water supply and sanitation

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Zimbabwean government have signed a US $30 million grant agreement in support of the urgent water supply and sanitation rehabilitation project (UWSSRP) in the country. The UWSSRP is financed from the Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund (the Zim-Fund).

The agreement was signed on Friday June 10, 2011 in Lisbon, Portugal, by Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister, Tendai Biti and the AfDB’s Vice President for Operations, Aloysius Ordu.

Once implemented, the project will improve the state of the water and sanitation infrastructure in Harare, Masvingo, Mutare, Chegutu, Kwekwe and Chitungwiza, and benefit over 4.15 million people living in these cities.

The Zim-Fund was established in May 2010 and formally launched in Zimbabwe by the AfDB’s President, Donald Kaberuka, in March 2011. Contributors to the Zim-Fund include Australia, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the AfDB.

For more information see:
Urgent Water Supply and Sanitation Rehabilitation Project : project appraisal report, AfDB, Oct 2010. Download report

Related web site: AfDB – Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund

Source: AfDB, 10 Jun 2011

East Africa: Germany and Japan harmonising efforts in water and sanitation

GIZ and JICA have signed an agreement to collaborate in water and sanitation in Zambia, Uganda and Kenya. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have agreed to plan, implement and evaluate their projects collectively in future. There are plans to extend the cooperation to other countries as well.

Zambia

In Zambia, GIZ works on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Zambia, providing advisory services to the government and urban water providers. JICA implements infrastructure and technical assistance projects, in both urban and rural areas. The two agencies have not set a time limit for their cooperation, but they have agreed biannual evaluations.

In Zambia, for instance, GIZ has cooperated with the government to develop a new concept for supplying water to slum areas, which concentrates on ‘water kiosks’ – public sales points connected to the mains water supply. These have so far opened the way to clean drinking water for more than 600,000 people. Now, assisted by GIZ, JICA will use this approach for wider application in other parts of the country. At the same time, GIZ will help spread the use of a maintenance system for rural water supplies, which was developed with Japanese support, to other regions of Zambia. This will benefit about 500,000 people.

Uganda

Here GIZ and JICA are working together improve sanitation in schools and poor urban areas, and in climate adaptation measures for water supply.

Kenya

In Kenya, both agencies are collaborating to reduce water losses in distribution networks, are helping promote more effective use of scarce water resources by the state.

Related web sites:

• GIZ – Water
• JICA – Focus on Water

Source: GIZ, 07 Apr 2011

Zimbabwe: Urgent Water Supply and Sanitation Rehabilitation Project

The African Development Bank (AfDB) will provide US$ 29.65 million to support urgent rehabilitation works – restoration and stabilization of water supply and sanitation services in the Municipalities of Harare, Chitungwiza, Mutare, Chegutu, Masvingo and Kwekwe. The Urgent Water Supply and Sanitation Rehabilitation Project is one of two projects that have been identified for financing from the new Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund (Zim-Fund). AfDB launched the Zim-Fund on 7 March 2011, as a successor to the Zimbabwe Programmatic Multi-Donor Trust Fund (Zim-MDTF).

The Urgent Water Supply and Sanitation Rehabilitation Project targets a total population of approximately 4.15 million people. The envisaged outcomes include: increased reliability, quality and availability of water supply in the project areas; restored wastewater treatment capacity; and reduced incidence of cholera and other water related diseases.

Donors’ commitments to the Zim-Fund currently stand at an equivalent of US$ 68.8 million. Donors so far include Australia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, UK (DfID) and Germany (KfW).

Source: AfDB – Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund

Uganda, Kamapala: investment scenarios for pro-poor water services

Water service to the urban poor presents challenges to political leaders, regulators and managers. A new study [1] identifies technology mixes of yard taps, public water points (with and without pre-paid meters) to meet alternative constraints, and reflecting populations served and investment requirements.

Three investment scenarios have different implications for improving water access to over 400,000 citizens in Kampala. One component, pre-paid water meters, can promote social equity and institutional sustainability. If procedural justice is given as much weight as distributive justice in the selection of pro-poor programs, pre-paid meters (the ultimate cost recovery tool) can have a place in the investment plan. The study examines how public stand pipes (and a combination of other options) can meet both financial constraints and social objectives. Financial considerations cannot be wished away when seeking effective strategies for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. (author abstract)

[1] Berg, S.V. and Mugishab, S. (2010). Pro-poor water service strategies in developing countries: promoting justice in Uganda’s urban project. Water policy ; vol. 12, no. 4 ; p. 589–601. doi:10.2166/wp.2010.120
Read free PDF version

Contact: Dr. Sanford V. Berg, Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, USA, fax: +1-352-3927796, e-mail: sberg@ufl.edu

Zimbabwe, Harare: a decade of water woes

At 12 midnight, Grandmother Ambuya Marvelous Mlambo makes her way quietly to the neighbouring borehole armed with her two 25-litre buckets. Scores of other women, young and old, are already at the borehole when she arrives so she has to join the queue.

Those waiting have an average of at least three containers each.

When her turn finally comes, it is already three o’clock in the morning. She laboriously fills her containers before making her way home. An hour later, she can finally sleep, only to get up again at six to prepare something for her 3 grand children before she sees them off to school.

Gogo Mlambo lives in the Gaza high-density suburb of Chipinge and this is the kind of life she has been living for the past 10 years.

Their water taps ran dry leaving them depending on water from springs that are dotted along the banks of a stream that runs along the outskirts of the suburb.

The residents’ situation had slightly changed for the better after UNICEF drilled some boreholes in August last year from which they are drawing water now.

But that was only done in an effort to elude the rampaging cholera outbreak that had hit the country.

But now the few boreholes are strained and some of them are fast wearing out due to excessive use.

Another non-governmental organisation also came in and built some water-holding structures around the springs but that does not protect the water from contamination.

“Raw sewerage is flowing freely as you can see in the direction of the stream and its final destination is in most cases those water holes.

“There are very high risks of disease outbreaks at the moment especially as there is no water in our houses yet we have to use toilets inside.

“All the taps we have in our houses are just there for decoration and last had water flowing through them a decade ago,” one resident Violet Mutanda said.

She complained that the council was deliberately ignoring them and not doing anything to right the situation yet they were sending huge bills of water at the end of every month.

“At one point I received a bill of US$900 and ignored it of course. It is surprising to note that council still acts as if everything is all right with the water situation and expects to generate some revenue from it. Why should we pay for services that we are not getting?” she asked.

Additionally, she said the council had at one point advised them that they (council) no longer had anything to do with their water services but ZINWA had taken over.

She further explained that council had deliberately allowed the situation to degenerate during that time when it was not clear who between them and ZINWA was supposed to be running the show.

On the contrary the council remains adamant that they have everything under control and are doing all they can to improve the residents’ situation even though it will take long for the residents to see and enjoy the results.

“We are currently repairing boreholes so that the water situation improves for the 12 000 residents that are affected.

“To date we have completed repairing two and we are left with one.

“We have all the resources that are needed for the programme, Chipinge town engineer Paul Mlauzi said recently.

He however conceded that the problem had haunted the residents for a very long time as council was incapacitated to draw water from Bangazani Dan about 4km away, a fact that had seen many households’ taps running dry.

At the moment the water crisis has disrupted the residents’ social life severely, as they can not host visitors lest they are embarrassed when the visitors fail to find toilets to relieve themselves.

“The situation is so bad that most people are crossing into the nearby farm to relieve themselves with the worst cases being those of people squatting behind bins to relieve themselves before burying the excretion in their yards or gardens,” one resident said.

She added that it was difficult for them to fetch water for cooking, bathing, laundry and toilets at the same time as they had other demanding domestic chores to attend to too.

“Most children are going to school on empty tummies because the mothers or guardians are busy looking for water, which is sometimes found at distances of between one and two kilometres.

“Imagine travelling all that distance with a bucketful of water on the head and dangling another one,” she added.

The visibly distraught resident also added that malnutrition was rife among children in the suburb, as parents were not getting adequate time to attend to their nutritional concerns, a feat that is difficult in the absence of reliable water sources.

The residents’ situation has been made precarious by the high incidence of free flowing raw sewerage that is evidently taking advantage of the sloping gradient to snake into the stream from which they draw water.

It is not surprising if another cholera outbreak or some other water borne disease were soon to be witnessed in the suburb that has more than 4 000 households, the bigger percentage of which is in dire need of water.

The suburb is now entirely dependent on springs and some bit of borehole water literally transforming it into a “springs suburb” yet the reality on the sanitation system is appalling and needing urgent attention.

Source: Obert Chifamba, The Herald / allAfrica.com, 12 Jun 2010

South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal: poor people’s movement draws government wrath

The rise of Abahlali baseMjondolo, a militant non-aligned shack dwellers movement in KwaZulu-Natal province, is being met with increasing hostility by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) government. The movement has been at the forefront of frequent service delivery protests. In the first quarter of 2010, there were 54 such protests throughout South Africa, compared with 105 protests in the whole of 2009.

Most service delivery protests are seen as spontaneous expressions of dissatisfaction, which sometimes degenerate into acts of arson and public violence, but Abahlali baseMjondolo has become organized and claims a membership of more than 20,000 people across 25 informal settlements in and around Durban, KwaZulu-Natal’s largest city.

[...]

The president of Abahlali baseMjondolo, Sbu Zikode, 37, who now lives in hiding with his family, told IRIN that the movement was formed for the purpose of working with the government and local authorities to improve the lives of shack-dwellers, but the response has been far from cordial.

Critics have accused Abahlali Basemjondolo of being a Third Force, agent provocateurs and counter-revolutionaries. In September 2009, an office of Abahlali baseMjondolo was attacked and two of its members were killed. The incident garnered national and international condemnation.

“Those in power are blind to our suffering because they don’t understand what it is like to live in a shack. They must come with us while we look for work; they must chase away the rats and keep the children from knocking over the candles,” Zikode said.

”Those in power are blind to our suffering because they don’t understand what it is like to live in a shack”
“They must care for the sick when there are long queues for the tap; they must be there when we bury our children who have died in shack fires, or from diarrhoea, or AIDS.”

No water at school, so they play school at home! Photo: Abahlali baseMjondolo

Abahlali baseMjondolo has said it will stage protests to demand housing for the poor during the soccer World Cup finals, which take place in South Africa in June 2010. It has also started a campaign to boycott the 2011 municipal elections with the slogan: “No Land, No House, No Vote”.

Related web sites:

• Official web site of Abahlali baseMjondolo
• Wikipedia – Abahlali baseMjondolo

Source: IRIN, 21 Apr 2010

Kenya, Nairobi: “a dream come true” for many slum residents

An innovative slum-upgrading project in Huruma*, to the northeast of the Kenyan capital, has provided improved homes to least 200 households, who now have running water, a sewage connection, electricity, drainage, paving and renovated toilet blocks. The Italian NGO, COOPI, which spearheaded the project, expects to deliver 50 more houses in the near future.

Initially planned to take three years (2005-2007), the 1.5 million euro (US$2.1 million) project has stretched into 2010 due to complications, such as the post-election violence of early 2008, which affected parts of Huruma. COOPI is the project’s implementing agency, with the Italian ministry of foreign affairs one of the main donors.

The beneficiaries pay 20 percent of the cost of the house through local saving schemes, and get a loan for the remaining 80 percent.

It costs at least 300,000 shillings ($3,850) to complete one house, a three-level 50 sqm structure that can be built in phases, subject to cash availability. COOPI supports the construction of the infrastructure and Pamoja Trust, a local NGO, provides social and technical support.

Muungano wa Wanavijiji, a network of community savings groups, was set up in the 1990s to provide home loans to the victims of forced evictions by city council officials.

Brokered by COOPI and Pamoja Trust, an agreement was signed in 2002 between the Huruma community and the Nairobi City Council, with the council committing itself to transfer the land occupied by the informal settlement to the community, in accordance with a community land tenure system.

The city council also designated Huruma a “special planning area”, facilitating the adjustment of conventional planning standards and the adoption of a “more appropriate” building code. [T]his was important because the application of high construction standards and the usual procedure to issue title deeds were some of the elements blamed for the failure of previous slum upgrading.

In the past, new housing schemes would be lead to the expulsion of the targeted beneficiaries in favour of those with higher incomes, and thus shifting the problem from one area to another.

* Huruma has gained international fame as the residence Barack Obama’s half-brother George Obama.

Related web site: COOPI – Urban renewal in 5 informal villages in the district of Huruma – Nairobi

Source: IRIN, 23 Feb 2010

Ethiopia: World Bank provides US$ 80 million to improve access to safe and sustainable water and sanitation services

The World Bank has approved an additional credit of US$80 million for the Water Supply and Sanitation Project (WSSP) in Ethiopia, which has been implemented since November 2004. The objective of the original project, which remains unchanged, is increased access to sustainable water supply and sanitation services, for rural and urban users, through improved capacity of stakeholders in the sector.

“Approximately 1.5 million rural people have benefited from improved water supply and sanitation services through capacity building in 204 woredas and construction of 3,364 rural water supply schemes,” said Yitbarek Tessema, the World Bank’s Task Team Leader for the project.

Similarly 150,000 urban residents have obtained access to improved water supply and sanitation services from increased production as well as improved distribution and enhanced performance of local operators. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) is currently co-financing the project with GB£ 70 million through a Bank-managed multi-donor trust fund.

While the rural component of the project has been substantially completed, its urban component has encountered a financing gap. The US$ 80 million additional financing is to cover the costs associated with the financing gap in the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Component of the project. This is due to (i) higher than expected per capita costs for piped systems; (ii) larger than expected populations in participating towns; (iii) the shifting of project funds to the Global food crisis project; and (iv) the earlier change in the disbursement policy (which allowed financing of the taxes, and hence increased IDA contributions to the project cost).

The World Bank has approved the additional financing considering that the resource available for the urban component can only partially fund construction of water supply facilities in the 50 towns originally targeted by the project. Within the original project objective and following the same implementation arrangement, the additional financing will be used to cover the financial gap in these 50 towns to meet the original project objective. The project will be implemented by ministries, regional bureaus and woreda offices of water, health and education until March 31, 2013.

For more information go to Water Supply and Sanitation Project page .

Source: World Bank, 31 Mar 2010

Nigeria, Lagos: mini-waterworks handed over to communties

While commissioning the newly constructed two mini-waterworks at Magodo and Mende area of metropolitan Lagos last week, the state governor, Mr.Babatunde Fashola said eight of such mini-waterworks have been fully completed and on commissioning, they are capable of giving people of the state additional 30 million gallons of water daily.

According to the governor, the two mini-waterworks commissioned were part of the 15 such projects being undertaken by the state government to enable residents of Lagos get drinkable water on regular supply everyday. He said the completed eight among the 15 mini-waterworks will soon be handed over to the communities where they were sited.

The governor also said the new 15 mini water works in addition to providing 30 million gallons of water to the people of Lagos daily would also each come with five kilometer reticulation to aid the distribution of the water across the state.

On the government readiness and medium term plan of the for solving the problem of water supply in Lagos, Fashola said the Iju Waterworks and Adiyan water works with a capacity to produce 130 million gallons of water daily would be positioned for optimum production for the betterment of the people.

Explaining how this dream will easily become a reality, the governor noted that Lagos is building a 12.5 megawatt independent power station that would be dedicated to the two prominent water works in the state and promised that before June this year, the Independent power station would be commissioned.

On the remaining seven among the 15 mini-waterworks projects embarked on by the state government, Fashola explained that they were at different stages of completion adding that they were spread across the state with all of them scheduled for delivery in the next few weeks as part of the short term plan of providing water for the populace.

Describing commissioning of the two mini water works at Mende and Magodo as a fulfillment of his electoral promises to the people two and half years ago, the governor said the long term plan for getting required water for use by Lagosians was to build new massive waterworks through the Adiyan Phase 2 and Odomola in Epe, both in the outskirt of metropolitan Lagos.

While stressing that the plans form part of the water sector reforms of the government, he invited private investors to come forward and partner with the state by investing in the water sector just as it is done overseas.

He also said water supply is a major component of the State Government’s responsibility to sustain the environment, promote sustainability and provision of health care and prevent disease.

In his words: “While some people see this as a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) or a goal that has a particular date, we in our party (the Action Congress) see it as a Minimum Development Goal”.

Governor Fashola added: “A long time ago they told us that everything will happen in Year 2010, we are now in 2010, the miraculous year. The Action Congress (AC) believes that this are things that should not have a date but should be the primary function of any serious party that wants to form government in this country.”

Governor Fashola also expressed appreciation to the contractor which handled the mini water works at Magodo for donating a computer and laboratory science block to the school behind the water works without any prompting.

He described the conduct of the contractor as a commendable act of giving something back to the community by people who have prospered from their endeavours in the area. He appealed to the residents of the communities where the water works are located not to see the projects as government properties, but facilities they should be ready to defend, adding that the people should guide against vandalisation, cutting of pipe and making illegal connections.

Governor Fashola also implored residents to pay their water bills regularly noting that refusing to do so will deprive the water corporation of resources to keep the supply going, buy diesel and maintain the facility, which would ultimately be inimical to the ability of the facility to supply water to the people.

Source: Femi Akinola, Daily Trust / allAfrica.com, 02 Feb 2010