The African Development Bank (AfDB) has just released US$26.2 million to finance a drinking water supply project for the city of Mbuji-Mayi in East Kasai province. Objective to reduce water scarcity in this part of the country by more than 50%. This fund is channelled through the Project for the Strengthening of Socio-economic Infrastructure in the Central Region of the DRC (PRISE).
It will be used to finance the cost of the work to rehabilitate the drinking water supply system in the city of Mbuji-Mayi. This work, which will begin next December, will be carried out over a 32-month period in order to reach 57% of the targeted areas.
The contractor will have to install 865 standpipes, the connection of which will start from the water catchment area from the Lukelenge spring, via Bakwa-Kapamba, Tshilomba and Maréchal.
Indeed, the Secretary General for Rural Development and Chairman of the PRISE Steering Committee supervised, on Friday 21 September last in Kinshasa, the signing of the contract for this work between the Chinese company PAN-China Group and the national PRISE coordination represented by the civil engineer Déo Nsunzu.
Present at the ceremony, the Minister of Rural Development, Guy Mikulu, expressed his sincere thanks to the AfDB. He also welcomed the management of this project, the first phase of which is now being implemented.
If the Government’s objective is to connect the entire city with drinking water, the second phase is part of this perspective.
According to the PRISE coordinator, another contract will soon be signed with KFW to strengthen the service capacity of Regideso Mbuji-Mayi.
As a reminder, the Socio-Economic Infrastructure Strengthening Project (PRISE) in the central zone of the DRC was launched in 2014. It is the result of a partnership between the AfDB and the Congolese Government, through the Ministry of Rural Development.
This partnership is co-financed for more than USD 105 million by the two parties with the objective of contributing to the improvement of the living conditions of populations in more than 30 urban areas with 10,000 to 25,000 inhabitants each, in the two Kasai provinces around the Ilebo-Tshikapa-Kananga-Mbuji-Mayi axis.
Agnès KAYEMBE