The African Development Bank (AfDB) has named Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, and Sierra Leone as the first countries to launch the African Urban Sanitation Investment Initiative (AUSII) project in 2024, media reported.
Four out of five countries are the primary beneficiaries of the project, which aims to enhance the access to clean water for the poverty-stricken people.
“The target is to select five countries primarily based on their readiness for a smooth rollout of AUSII operational plans,” the AfDB reportedly stated.
The project, jointly financed by the AfDB and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is scheduled to be implemented for the first time this year with an initial funding of $6 million, according to the reports.
The AUSII's objective is to facilitate local companies that offer pioneering solutions with secure funding for expanding their operations, thereby assisting the urban poor in accessing clean water, media revealed.
This comes at a time when millions of people living in urban areas, particularly in major African cities, are struggling to access safe drinking water. The population growth in these cities has put even more pressure on water infrastructure, which has been unable to meet the rising demand for water.
The initiative specifically targets the poor, who bear a disproportionate share of the burden because they reside in informal settlements without access to piped water.
Lack of clean water can cause one disease that, if left untreated, can quickly lead to death: cholera. Last month, Zambia's President Hakainde Hichilema urged the population to move from towns to rural areas in the wake of a cholera epidemic as they have more space and less congested, thus having "perfect sanitation" which is necessary to fight the disease.