Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Project (LVWATSAN) in Kisumu County, Kenya, is set to receive a financial boost after the cabinet secretary for the National Treasury of Kenya, Ukur Yatani, signed an agreement with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Union (EU), to finance the project.
As per the agreements, the AFD and the EIB will provide US$ 23.4M and US$ 41M respectively as concession loans while the European Union will make available US$ 5.8M as a grant. The national government of Kenya will provide counterpart financing of US$ 11.7M.
Implementation of the project
The signing of the agreements paves the way for the implementation of the project which will expand the water and sanitation distribution network in Kisumu, a port city on Lake Victoria and the third-largest city in the East African country.
To be undertaken by the Lake Victoria South Water Works Development Agency, the project entails the expansion of distribution networks to include informal settlements and expansion of water supply to the satellite towns of Ahero and Maseno. The distribution networks will also be fitted with a component for water quality monitoring for Lake Victoria, meant to protect the shared regional water resource and ensure the water treatment process is more efficient.
Ambroise Fayolle, the vice president of EIB said that this impressive water project will contribute to improving health, reducing child mortality, and fighting poverty in communities facing climate change and strengthening efforts to combat Covid-19.
The city’s water and sanitation network will in the future benefit from significant extension thanks to this new financing from the AFD, EIB, and UE, providing for the population’s projected need until 2030.
