A steering committee to facilitate the execution of a government-ADB project is fine-tuning strategies. The government of Cameroon and its development partners, especially the African Development Bank (ADB), are working in synergy to step up the quantity and quality of potable water supply in over 350 semi-urban areas in more than 16 localities in the country. ADB and the government on May 13, 2009 signed an agreement to jointly finance the improvement of water supply in 16-19 localities. This will be done through a project, code-named, “Project to supply and purify potable water in semi-urban areas in the country”, to the tune of FCFA 31 billion. ADB, by the agreement, is to disburse FCFA 27,2 billion, the State FCFA three billion and beneficiary councils FCFA 749 million.
The coordination committee to follow up the implementation of the agreement met in Yaounde on Tuesday January 25, 2011, under the auspices of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources, Fritz Gerald Nasako, to chart the way forward for the project. The meeting, the second of the committee since it was set up, was to draw the balance sheet of 2010 and map out strategies of effectively leaving a mark in the ongoing fiscal year. “Since inception, we have not done much and that is why we are meeting to seek ways of giving the required impetus to the agreement because people are waiting for concrete action”, Mr Nasako said.
The project consists in improving potable water and supplying infrastructure and institutional support to structures involved in the project. The provision of potable water to urban areas, the SG added, is the principal responsibility of government through, Cameroon Water Utility Corporation, CAMWATER. The utility, he stressed, has drafted and adopted an investment programme which among others provides for the improvement of the water supply situation in all urban settlements in the country. The steering committee members disclosed that almost all is set at the level of Cameroon and they are just waiting for the go ahead of the ADB to launch calls for tenders in view of effectively taking the project off the ground.
