Burkina Faso - Project to support access to drinking water and sanitation in outlying areas

Background: The proposed project builds on the experience of the delegation of the public drinking water service, capitalized since 2009 by the National Office of Water and Sanitation (ONEA) of Burkina Faso, the executing agency, to extend drinking water supply to peripheral or undeveloped neighborhoods of the city of Ouagadougou, which are in deficit. Indeed, with the lack of funding that characterized the 2016-2020 period, investments for the development of drinking water supply and sanitation systems have not kept pace with the changing needs of urban populations, especially in the undeveloped peripheral areas, where a very large part of the Ouagadougou population resides. As a result, there is currently a great disparity in water supply between the developed part of the city (access rate of over 90%) and the non-developed part (access rate of 37%). On the one hand, the project will provide an immediate response to the low coverage of water and sanitation needs in these densely populated areas, thus helping to reduce the exposure of their mostly poor and vulnerable residents to waterborne diseases and COVID-19. In addition, the project will support technical, socio-economic and environmental, social and climate impact feasibility studies for medium-term investments in the development of climate-resilient water, sanitation and hygiene services in the most deprived and densely populated peripheral neighborhoods of Ouagadougou not yet served by the ONEA network. In this regard, the project will make available to the Government and donors an integrated project file for investment in water, hygiene, sanitation and climate resilience services in five (05) peripheral neighborhoods not served by ONEA (Bogodogo North-East, Boassa, Zaghtouli, Watinoma, Tengandogo), including the consultation files of service providers for its complete operationalization. With a total duration of thirty-six (36) months, the project has a total estimated cost of one million seven hundred thousand ninety-nine and fifty-six cents (1,700,099.56) Euros financed by the African Water Facility (AWF) to the tune of 1,549,710.78 Euros and the Government /ONEA to the tune of 150,388.78 Euros.

Objectives: The project aims to contribute to the improvement of living and health conditions and climate resilience of poor and vulnerable urban populations in the outskirts of Ouagadougou. Its specific objectives are: (i) provide drinking water and sanitation services to at least 28,774 additional people, 52% of whom are women including internally displaced persons (IDPs); (ii) ensure sustainable management of the city's water and sanitation services; (iii) prepare a new integrated water and sanitation investment project that is gender sensitive and climate resilient for five (5) new unserved peripheral neighborhoods; (iv) prepare a study on hydro-climatic vulnerability; (v) build the capacity of ONEA, MEEEA and water service providers; (vi) sensitize at least 500,000 people, including at least 250,000 women, to the adoption of good sanitation and hygiene practices, including the fight against COVID-19.

Beneficiaries: The direct beneficiaries are ONEA, the ten target communities and the populations to be served; in the short term the beneficiary population will be approximately 28,774 people (52% of whom are women), including internally displaced persons (IDPs). In addition, the public water service providers operating in these areas will benefit from capacity building activities in network maintenance and hygiene and sanitation promotion; the same is true for ONEA and MEEEA, whose capacities will be strengthened in terms of integrating and managing climate risks in the WASH sub-sector, and integrating gender, AFDH and LNOB in their interventions. The development, thanks to the project, of a water supply strategy for informal settlements and an operational strategy for the sanitation of wastewater and excreta in informal settlements for the benefit of ONEA, as well as a strategic sanitation plan integrating the concept of city-wide sanitation (CWIS) for the benefit of the town halls benefiting from the project's immediate interventions, will indirectly benefit all urban populations living in these areas following the improvement of the intervention framework of ONEA and other actors and partners in water and sanitation.