The African Water Facility Approves a Grant for Climate Resilience and COVID-19 Recovery in Mali
The African Water Facility has approved a grant of EUR1,650,798 to implement an urban project to strengthen climate resilience and improve COVID-19 recovery in Mali.
Under the Facility’s joint program with the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) and Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this project will mitigate the effects of climate change through sustainable and greener investments in water, sanitation and hygiene including integrated water resource management, and provide preventive measures against COVID-19 in 7 municipalities in Bamako, Mali.
The project will be implemented over a period of three years, beginning from November 2022 and cost a total of EUR 2,001,298.76, with the Government of Mali providing a support of EUR 350,500.76. It will be executed by local partner, Société Malienne de Patrimoine de l’Eau Potable (SOMAPEP-SA).
Potential outcomes of the project include the adoption of good hygiene and sanitation practices by 500,000 people to curb the spread of COVID-19 and speed up recovery, access to safe drinking water for 30,000 people, adequate sanitation for 2,000 people, and creation of 650 jobs in areas such as engineering and facilities management. Other Financiers have committed to provide downstream investment which will benefit an additional 700,000 people, 50% of whom are women.
The project is also expected to result in the development of 40 latrines with gender cabin allocation in 6 schools, 2 health centres, and 1 market, 8 piezometric boreholes to monitor water resource level and vulnerability dynamics, and capacity training on effective water service management, climate smart planning, and management for 235 people.
In delivering this project, feasibility, detailed design, environmental and social safeguard studies have been conducted for a total of 9,500m^3 water storage infrastructures, 2 water pumping stations with a total capacity of 1,900m3/h, and over 35km of water transfer network (DN500 and DN600). In addition, an analytical work to assess the baseline situation for access to WASH services in Bamako and surrounding areas has been undertaken, as well as an economic and sector work on hydroclimatic vulnerability on competing water needs, to inform the planned interventions.
AWF Coordinator, Mtchera Chirwa said, “This project is a milestone and marks the implementation of our joint program with the Nordic Development Fund and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to improve climate resilience and strengthen recovery, by building back better with greener investments in water and sanitation services in the Sahel and Horn of Africa regions. We are happy to be working with the Government of Mali to implement the project and achieve better development outcomes for the country and people of Mali.”
The African Water Facility’s joint program with the NDF and Danish MFA will improve access to domestic water supply and sanitation services, support COVID-19 prevention and recovery efforts, and improve climate resilience through water and sanitation in both rural and urban communities in five countries in the Sahel and Horn of Africa, over a four-year period.
About the African Water Facility (AWF)
The African Water Facility (AWF) was established in 2004 under the initiative of the African Minsters’ Council on Water (AMCOW), to mobilise resources to finance water resources development activities in Africa. AWF is hosted and managed by the African Development Bank (AfDB).