AfDB to Fund Water and Sanitation Infrastructure in Lake Victoria Basin
By George Okore
NAIROBI---The East African Community has Wednesday signed a Grant Protocol of Agreement worth US$108 million with the African Development Fund (AfDB) to finance the second phase of the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation (LVWATSAN) Programme.
The Agreement was signed by the Secretary General of the East African Community, Ambassador Juma V. Mwapachu and James Opio-Omoding, Officer-in-Charge of the African Development Bank (Kenya) at the bank’s Kenya Country Offices in Nairobi. The ceremony was attended by the Executive Secretary, Lake Victoria Basin Commission, Dr. Tom Okurut.
The development objective of the LVWATSAN Programme is to contribute to the improvement of the livelihoods and health of communities in the basin, through the reversal of the pollution of the lake through improvements in sustainable water supply and sanitation infrastructure. It will specifically reduce pollution in the lake through improvements in the water supply and sanitation infrastructure of the selected towns through five components: water supply; hygiene and environmental sanitation; urban drainage improvement; capacity building; and project management.
Fifteen secondary towns in the Lake Victoria Basin will directly benefit from the Programme: Muyinga, Kayanza and Ngozi in Burundi; Kericho, Keroka and Isebania-Sirari cluster in Kenya; Nyagatare, Kayonza and Nyanza in Rwanda; Geita, Sengerema and Nansio in Tanzania; as well as Mayuge, Ntungamo and the Buwama-Kayabwe-Bukakata cluster in Uganda.
The African Development Fund is contributing US$ 108 million (89.07 per cent) while the five Partner States will be contributing US$ 13 million (10.93 per cent). The Protocol for the Sustainable Development of the Lake Victoria Basin tasks the Commission’s Secretariat to mobilise resources for the implementation of sustainable development projects and programmes.
Overall, this initiative seeks to demonstrate that the Millennium Development Goal on ensuring Environmental Sustainability can be achieved in a relatively short time frame and that investments can be sustained over the long term by effectively integrating physical infrastructure works, training and capacity building into a balanced and cohesive Programme of interventions.
The initiative seeks to develop the right balance between investments on water and sanitation infrastructure in the secondary towns and capacity-building at the local and regional level as means to sustain Programme benefits. Ambassador Mwapachu hailed the signing of the agreement as a historical milestone in the resource mobilization endeavours of the East African Community which consist of five countries namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.
The AfDB Officer in Charge of the Kenya Field Office, Mr Opio-Omoding, said the LVWATSAN Programme Phase II offered a unique opportunity for the five EAC Partner States to strengthen their cooperation and sharing of important experiences in safe water supplies and improved sanitation.