Three million people will benefit from improved access to drinking water and sanitation in Burkina Faso, the funding for the project having been approved.

Three million people will benefit from improved access to drinking water and sanitation in Burkina Faso following the approval of a loan and a grant to finance a water and sanitation project in the country.

The Boards of Directors of the African Development Fund and the African Development Bank approved $ 45 million to finance the rural drinking water and sanitation project. The project will help raise the average drinking water access rate of rural populations from 55 percent to 71 percent in the four regions covered by the project by 2011. It also will contribute in increasing the average access rate to sanitation facilities in the four regions from 10 percent to 20 percent.

In order to achieve these objectives, the project will build 20,100 new household latrines and 1,150 new community latrines (markets, schools and health centers), along with 7,000 new domestic drain-wells. The project also will provide training for 200 masons in the construction of latrines and 200 teachers in hygiene. Some 400 female intermediaries will be set up in villages to raise awareness on hygiene. The project will involve the construction of 1,345 new modern water points (MWP) equipped with hand pumps, and 16 new simplified pipe-borne water supply systems (SPWS). The project also will rehabilitate 50 boreholes equipped with hand pumps, 5 SPWS and 10 autonomous water stations. Some 1,080 water supply users’ associations will be put in place, run and trained in the management and maintenance of MWPs. Capacity-building activities also include training of 31 SPWS managers and outreach and awareness campaigns in the villages.