Contacts: In Washington: Rachel Mccolgan-Arnold (202) 458 5299 rmccolgan@worldbank.org In Kinshasa: Louise Engulu Mekonda (243) 98 30 29 14 lengulu@worldbank.org WASHINGTON, December 18, 2008—The Board of Directors of the World Bank today approved a US$190 million IDA grant for an urban water supply project in urban areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Urban Water Supply Project (Projet d’Alimentation en Eau Potable en Milieu Urbain (PEMU)) seeks to sustainably increase access to potable water in selected urban areas and improve the effectiveness of REGIDESO, the national water utility. DRC has some of the largest water resources in the world, and although its hydro-geological resources are believed to be substantial, the country still faces considerable difficulties when it comes to supplying water to its population. Currently, only 22 percent of the total population, or 11 million people, have access to safe drinking water in the country. This project will bring DRC a step closer to achieving the seventh Millennium Development Goal (MDG-7)—to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. It is estimated that through this project, nearly 1.2 million urban dwellers will have access to drinking water, which in turn will improve their quality of life (MDG-1), reduce infant mortality (MDG-4), improve maternal health (MDG-5), and fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (MDG-6).
"The lack of drinking water poses a threat to public health and it is the poor who bear the brunt of inefficient service," said Franck Bousquet, the World Bank’s Task Team leader. “For a liter of water, they may pay up to seven times more than they should were they adequately served by public services.” Poor households in urban areas are the main target population of this project, which will also finance water standposts in particular for the poor.
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In addition to improved access, the project will reduce losses and increase productivity so as to improve the financial situation of REGIDESO. The project strategy is to create the conditions for the operational and financial viability of REGIDESO, improve its operations, and redress its finances through a change process led by a professional operator under a five-year management contract. "Existing customers will also benefit from improved service as a result of better management geared toward achieving results that will be monitored regularly by independent audits," Bousquet added.
Three cities have been selected for the investments funded under the project— Kinshasa, Matadi and Lubumbashi. Preliminary studies have shown that emphasis should be placed on these three major urban centers to restore the financial viability of REGIDESO. Together, these three cities account for 72 percent of the company’s revenue, 79 percent of its active customers, but only 38 percent of its infrastructure network.Other donors are also financing investments in secondary cities in DRC.
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