Projects > Brief descriptions > Reform of the water sector

Contact person

Mr Eberhard Goll
Email: eberhard.goll@giz.de

Reform of the water sector

Programme description

Title: Reform of the water sector
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Zambia
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Energy and Water Development (MEWD), Ministry of Local Government and Housing (MLGH)
Overall term: 2010 to 2012

Context

80 per cent of Zambia’s urban population, some three million people, live on the outskirts of towns and cities. Nearly half of these people do not have sufficient access to clean drinking water or sanitation. In rural areas, the situation is even worse. This results in the spread of cholera and other diseases caused by dirty water.

Objective

The legal, organisational and institutional framework conditions to improve the access that poor population groups have to clean drinking water and appropriate sanitation and to the integrated management of water resources have improved.

Approach

The programme supports national urban and rural water and sanitation programmes. As well as providing advisory services at ministerial level, through GFA Consulting, the programme provides a Provincial Support Team for rural water and sanitation in the Eastern Province. In urban areas, the programme supports the Devolution Trust Fund (DTF), which helps to improve water supply and sanitation in poor urban areas. For example, DTF funds are used to set up water kiosks, which are operated by private individuals who conclude contracts with water utilities.

Rodeco also provides advisory services to selected commercial water utilities, for example in the Eastern Province, on improving their services.

In the area of water resource management, the programme is helping MEWD to plan the establishment of a new institutional framework once the Water Act has been adopted.

Results achieved so far

The merger of a number of local authorities and the establishment of commercial service providers for towns and cities have helped improve the quality of drinking water and ensure a more regular supply. Some four million people have already gained access to clean drinking water as a result. Over the last three years, the water utilities supported by Germany have received national awards for excellent service.

The Devolution Trust Fund (DTF) is supported by various donors. Establishing water kiosks has so far provided more than 800,000 inhabitants in urban areas with access to clean drinking water. 20 litres of water cost less than one cent at these water kiosks. More than half of the water kiosks in the Eastern Province are operated by women.