Burkina Faso: Improved Sanitation For Ouagadougou

Members of the government and various development agencies met in Ouagadougou on Tuesday to discuss the funding of a sanitation project in the peri-urban areas of the capital.

The city hopes to implement a sanitation system resilient to the increasingly devastating floods the country has been recurrently facing in recent years.

The project is an estimated total cost of $175million and is expected to be completed by 2017.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has committed to funding the project with up to $33 million to begin the official works in 2013, adding to the $10 million contribution from the Government of Burkina Faso, and $1.9 by Ouagadougou Municipality.

The aim of the roundtable discussion was to find a way to fill the $130 million left to fund the project with other financial partners, many of which expressed an interest to donate during the meeting.

‘We are proud to be associated with this initiative and confident in the leadership of the City to carry out such an important and promising project,’ said Akissa Bahri, Coordinator of the African Water Facility. ‘We hope the financial partners will also support this project, which should benefit a wide range of citizens, including youth, women and the poorest people of the suburbs, providing them  with a better living environment.’

Some of the agencies represented at the meeting includes the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, the French Development Agency, the German Development Bank (KfW), the Islamic Development Bank, OFID (former Fund of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), UN-Habitat, WaterAid, Water and Sanitation Agency Africa, the West African Development Bank and the World Bank.