Mauritania has secured new financing for the implementation of the Kiffa Water Supply Project in the south. The US$30 million loan is provided by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD). The UAE financing comes after the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Opec Fund for International Development (OFID) approved US$100 million, US$37.87 million and US$40 million respectively for the water project.
It will take $317 million to complete the Kiffa water project, said Mauritania’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Promotion of Productive Sectors, Ousmane Mamoudou Kane. The financial institutions will contribute up to US$ 217 million.
Connecting 90 villages to the drinking water network
The other partners in the project are the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD).
According to the Mauritanian authorities, the US$317 million package will finance the construction of a new drinking water plant. The plant will treat raw water pumped from the Senegal River through four new pumping stations. The drinking water will be stored in several tanks.
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The Kiffa water project also includes a 250 km distribution network that will connect 90 villages and serve more than 20% of Mauritania’s population, or more than 550,000 people until 2035. The new facilities will be built under the water sharing mechanism of the Organisation pour la mise en valeur du fleuve Sénégal (OMVS). The Kiffa water project will also create 3,000 jobs in the water sector.
Inès Magoum