(Ecofin Agency) - Cote d’Ivoire will implement from 2016 to 2020 a program to improve access to drinking water. The project, which falls under the country’s National Development Programme, will cost, according to Prime Minister Danial Kablan Duncan, “CFA260 billion ($420 million) of which CFA68 billion ($109 million) for rural hydraulics”.  

During the 7th edition of the International Forum on Access to Drinking Water held this week in Abidjan, the Prime Minister said the water program aims to insure that 82.5% of the territory average, 60% of rural areas and 85% of urban areas, has access to drinking water.

Despite having abundant water resources, Cote d’Ivoire has a water mobilization capacity of around 77 billion m3/yr, including 39 billion m3 of surface water and around 38 billion m3 of ground water.

The uneven distribution of these resources across the nation is the main challenge to mobilizing them for human consumption. Also, the quality of raw, or untreated, water from dams and/or weirs, the latest dating from the 1980s, is degrading over the years.

A study conducted in 2012 reports that the percentage of Ivorians having pipe water in their homes is greater in urban (63%) than in rural areas (7%) where public pumps are more used (41%) as compared to urban (12%). However, the proportions for people from both areas using protected wells are almost the same (respectively 17% and 18% in urban and rural areas).

In regards to urban hydraulics, the main challenge is the lack of infrastructures. It results in a supply deficit of around 250,000 m3/day for Abidjan alone, thus 70% of Cote d’Ivoire’s total consumption. Moreover, 163 water treatment units out of 437, or 37%, have reached saturation level. The remaining 237 units, which are being overexploited as a result, are likely to soon do the same.

As for rural hydraulics, many municipalities still do not have access to drinking water; about 100 overall, each with a population of about 10,000 people.

B.K