Tunis — The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional window of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, approved on Wednesday in Tunis a loan of 35.19 millions Units of Account (UA**), equivalent to US $ 55.31 million, for the financing of the Water Services Boards Support Project in Kenya.
The project will benefit from a grant of 10.07 million UA from the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative Trust Fund, to be approved by the Board of the AfDB.
The project will address the capacity problems of three water services boards as well as of water service providers so that these can better cope with demand. It will support implantation of water supply and sanitation programs, the development of monitoring and evaluation capacity, systems and tools, implement water tariffs studies to support water pricing policies, and address the development of good governance in the water sector.
The project has four components:
* Institutional Development Support
* Urban Water Supply and Sanitation
* Rural Water Supply and Sanitation
* Kibera Development Support
The main beneficiaries are the inhabitants from Migori, Nyahururu, Isiolo, Murang?a North / Murang?a South, and the rural people in the Lake Victoria South and the Northern Water Services Boards area.
Included in the targeted areas is Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi, with an estimated population of over 500,000. This area is characterized by lack of and under developed water supply and sanitation facilities.
The total cost of the project is 56.90 million UA, about US$ 86.23 million. The ADF loan will finance 61.9 % of the total cost. Other sources of funding are: the Government of Kenya, the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI) Trust Fund Grant, UN-Habitat and the beneficiary communities.
The AfDB Group began operations in Kenya in 1967. The Bank?s cumulative commitments in the country currently stand at US $ 1.35 billion in 89 operations.
**1 UC = 1, 57188 US$ = 102,669 KES au 21/11/2007
