In a recent study of the World Bank entitled “Providing Water to Poor People in African Cities Effectively: Lessons from Utility Reforms”, Dakar was ranked first for the efficient management of its network.

Led by Chris Heymans, senior water and sanitization expert at the World Bank, the study reveals that access to water in Africa has barely improved since the 90s except for a few towns, such as Dakar. The percentage of Senegal’s population that has access to water has grown from 80% to 98.5% between 1996 and 2014. Given the demographic growth over the period, the figure means that the number of clients enjoying a service of high quality has tripled from about 240,000 to more than 638,000.

Senegal is thus one of the few African nations to have achieved the millennium development goals (MDG) in the water sector.

Explaining the reasons for this achievement, the study mentioned the coordinated and complementary efforts of companies and government, the state-owned company SONES and private actor, the Sénégalaise des Eaux (SDE).