Increasing access to improved water supply and sanitation services in Mozambique is a crucial objective of the country’s government and development partners.

The World Bank recently approved a $150 million grant to support the country’s Rural and Small Towns Water Security Project in Nampula and Zambezia provinces.

Development Diaries understands that the two provinces are home to 39 percent of the country’s population, yet have the lowest access rates to safe water supply and sanitation services.

The northern provinces of Mozambique have the highest rates of multi-dimensional poverty and the lowest rate of access to basic services such as water, sanitation, and electricity.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said in a report that more than 58 percent of the country’s population lack access to safe drinking water and nearly half of all households live without sanitation facilities.

‘Improving water security in small towns and rural areas will boost the country’s overall economic growth and has major positive externalities in terms of poverty reduction and human capital development’, World Bank Country Director for Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius, and Seychelles, Idah Pswarayi-Riddihough, said in a statement.

‘For rural women and girls, closer water availability means less time spent fetching water. By rehabilitating and upgrading 179 school sanitation facilities, including menstrual hygiene management facilities in schools, this operation will mean less menstrual-induced school absenteeism and dropouts for girls’.

The project, according to the bank, will invest in water and sanitation infrastructure in 17 small towns in the provinces and build incentives, to enhance the financial and operational sustainability of the services.

‘The project will also finance civil works in piped water supply schemes for 22 rural growth centres, including construction and upgrading of water sources, treatment plants, transmission, distribution, and household connections’, the statement read.

Grants, the bank added, will also be used to improve onsite sanitation facilities at 150 rural schools and at household levels, targeting 20,000 deprived rural families, making use of local service providers.

It also noted that the project has special provisions to extend the service and improve access to water supply and sanitation between the internally displaced people (IDP) reallocation centres and host communities.

Photo source: World Bank Photo Collection