Gambia, The - Water and Sanitation Project

Overview & Synopsis

The Gambia Water and Sanitation Project for The Gambia has the development objectives to improve access to water and sanitation services in selected regions and to strengthen the operational and financial performance of the Water Company. Component 1: Improving Access to Urban Drinking Water Services will expand safe and reliable supply in the Greater Banjul Area by constructing a Brikama East water treatment plant, drilling four boreholes including at least one into the deep Maastrichtian aquifer to add 10,000 cubic meters per day of capacity, building a 2,000 cubic meter elevated storage tank, installing 50 kilometers of distribution network, and providing approximately 6,000 new household connections while improving service for about 12,000 existing households; climate informed siting and design, backup power, supervisory control and data acquisition, smart metering, and network rehabilitation will enhance resilience and provide the physical basis for non revenue water reduction. Component 2: Improving Access to Sanitation Services will strengthen urban and rural sanitation delivery. Sub-components include Sub-component 2.1: Urban sanitation, which finances priority emergency rehabilitation of the Banjul and Kotu wastewater systems including the sea outfall, pipe replacement, and pumping station upgrades, expansion of the Kotu wastewater system to about 6,000 cubic meters per day with new sewers, pumping stations, and connections, and construction of a fecal sludge treatment plant in Kotu to shift from informal dumping to safely managed services and enable private participation under a build operate transfer arrangement with potential reuse such as biogas; and Sub-component 2.2: Rural Sanitation Development, which supports construction of 1,000 flood resilient household latrines and 20 public facilities, provision of handwashing facilities, behavior change, menstrual health and hygiene promotion, and targeted Community Led Total Sanitation campaigns, along with national open defecation free verification and an Onsite Sanitation Master Plan for 2030 to 2050. Component 3: Institutional Reform and Capacity Building for Sustainable Water Services will advance sector governance, utility performance, and water resource stewardship. Sub-components include Sub-component 3.1: Support to sector reform and Water Company operational and financial efficacy, which prepares a Water Supply and Sanitation sector roadmap with Sustainable Development Goal 6 options for 2030 to 2050, establishes the Water Company through a legal decree and a concession agreement, develops an urban tariff framework with a financial model, affordability analysis, and cost of service study, and procures a performance based contract to reduce non revenue water from 40 percent to 30 percent while modernizing infrastructure and information systems; Sub-component 3.2: Supporting transboundary cooperation on the Senegal Mauritanian Aquifer Basin through national consultations, shared monitoring, data exchange, and drought preparedness under the National Permanent Water Committee and the Gambia River Basin Development Organization; and Sub-component 3.3: Enhancing water resources monitoring and conservation by rehabilitating monitoring boreholes, installing automated equipment, strengthening provincial hydrological offices, improving regulatory enforcement, and establishing a centralized Water Quality Laboratory with support from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Component 4: Project Management will be led by a Project Implementation Unit anchored in the National Water and Electricity Company Limited (NAWEC) and reporting to the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines, covering coordination, fiduciary management, environmental and social risk management, monitoring and evaluation, grievance redress, citizen engagement, audits, and the services of an Independent Verification Agency to verify performance based conditions. A Contingent Emergency Response Component will allow rapid reallocation of funds to respond to eligible crises in accordance with an Emergency Action Plan and agreed environmental and social measures. The project includes four performance based conditions to sequence reforms and crowd in private participation: establishment of the Water Company and signing of a concession agreement with publication of the first annual report; mobilization of a private operator under a build operate transfer arrangement for fecal sludge treatment plant and wastewater treatment plant management; adoption and application of a new tariff policy for urban drinking water and sanitation approved by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority; and improved operational performance through a signed non revenue water performance based contract and verified reduction of non revenue water from 40 percent to 30 percent by an Independent Verification Agency.