World Bank support for post-cyclone water services: US$75 million – AIM report

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

World Bank support for post-cyclone water services: US$75 million – AIM report

9:06 CAT | 18 Jun 2019

in file CoM

The World Bank on Friday approved a grant of 75 million US dollars from its Crisis Response Window as additional funding for the “Water Services and Institutional Support Project”, currently under implementation in Mozambique.

According to a World Bank press release, this money “will primarily be utilised in support of water related emergency recovery efforts”. The funds will go towards water systems in cities and towns affected by cyclones Idai and Kenneth in March and April, including Beira, Dondo, Tete, Moatize, Nampula, Quelimane, Mocuba and Nacala.

“The project will fund water production and distribution infrastructure in the cyclone affected cities, including expansion and refurbishment of wellfields, intake, and water treatment facilities, network rehabilitation and expansion, as well as leakage control systems to optimize the water supply service provision”, said the release. “These investments will enable the government to provide services to large numbers of people in low-income brackets of the population in the largest urban areas by reconstructing part of the cyclone damaged water supply infrastructures”.

It added that “These activities will increase water supply and reliability, as well as the country’s resilience to droughts and other extreme weather events”.

The Bank’s team leader for the project, water supply and sanitation specialist, Lizmara Kirchner, said “These cities have been badly affected by heavy rains and floods during cyclone Idai, damaging the existing wellfields and parts of the network. The project will rehabilitate critical infrastructure and restore the basic water supply services in the affected areas”.

The project, said the release, “is part of the World Bank’s broader regional post cyclone recovery package which comprises a set of operations totalling some 700 million dollars to support cyclone response in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe”.

The money comes from the International Development Association (IDA), which is that part of the World Bank group which provides soft loans and grants to the world’s poorest countries, to boost economic growth and reduce poverty”.

ALSO READ: Government and World Bank financing irrigation with US$57 million – Mozambique

Source: AIM