Senegal will receive a combined African Development Fund (ADF) loan and grant amounting to 18.74 billion CFA francs to finance the country’s Water and Sanitation Sector Project (PSEA).

Senegal launched PSEA in 2005 as part of the Millennium Drinking Water and Sanitation Programme (PEPAM) to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.  PSEA is expected to improve the drinking water supply and sanitation access rate, reduce cases of malaria and diarrhoeal diseases by at least half, lower health-related expenses, and create approximately 5 000 temporary jobs and 500 permanent jobs.

The project comprises of a rural and an urban component. The rural component is designed to improve access to drinking water supply and sanitation for the people of the Louga, Kaffrine and Tambacounda regions. The urban component aims to rehabilitate and extend the Dakar and Ziguinchor sanitation networks.

The project further aims to improve the sector’s governance through the establishment of an appropriate monitoring and evaluation mechanism, the implementation of the action plan for integrated water resources management, and support to privatised management of rural drinking water facilities.

PSEA will be implemented in four years at a total cost of 29 billion CFA francs. The ADF loan and grant will finance 64.56% of the project while the government of Senegal will provide the remaining 35.44% of the costs.

The project builds on two previous African Development Bank projects which have helped improve rural drinking water and sanitation access rates in Louga, Kaffrine and Tambacounda. However, wide access-rate inequalities remain.