The African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, has approved a combined loan and grant amounting to 18.74 billion CFA francs (US$39.3 million) to finance the country’s Water and Sanitation Sector Project (PSEA).
PANA quotes the AfDB as saying the Fund’s Board approved the loan and grant in Tunis Wednesday.
The project will be implemented in four years at a total cost of 29 billion CFA francs (US$61 million).
The ADF loan (20 million Units of Account) and grant (6 million Euros) will finance 64.56% of the project while the Government of Senegal and the beneficiary communities will provide the remaining 35.44% of the costs.
Senegal launched PSEA in 2005 as part of the Millennium Drinking Water and Sanitation Programme (PEPAM) to ensure the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The project comprises a rural component designed to improve access to drinking water supply and sanitation for the people of the Louga, Kaffrine and Tambacounda regions, in continuation of two previous Bank operations, and an urban component to rehabilitate and extend the Dakar and Ziguinchor sanitation networks.
The project will also also establish an appropriate monitoring and evaluation mechanism; Implement the action plan for integrated water resources management and provide support to privatised management of rural drinking water facilities.
The project will directly benefit half a million residents of the Louga, Kaffrine and Tambacounda regions, as well as an estimated 250,000 people in Dakar and Ziguinchor, with women constituting 52% of the population in the regions and districts.
The PSEA is expected to improve the drinking water supply and sanitation (DWSS) access rate; reduce by at least one half, cases of malaria and diarrhoeal diseases; lower health-related expenses; and create approximately 5,000 temporary jobs and 500 permanent jobs, of which 2,500 for women and 300 for youth.
