The World Bank recently launched its Water Resources Development Project for the Republic of Zambia (WRDP), designed to support Zambia’s 2011 Water Resources Management Act, and aiming atsupporting the implementation of an integrated framework for development and management of water resources in Zambia in targeted rural communities.
The World Bank will be investing USD 50 million over a period of 5 years, financing the construction and rehabilitation of small-scale water infrastructure.
Such infrastructure include dams and gabions, establish flood-warning systems, and support capacity building to strengthen Zambia’s water-related geographic position in the southern African region.
The WRDP will also support the development of a set of large infrastructure investments, the construction and upgrading of hydro-meteorological and groundwater monitoring networks, as well as the introduction of new technologies and the establishment of institutions under Zambia’s 2011 Act.
Jamal Saghir, the World Bank’s Director for Sustainable Development in the Africa Region said : “The project will support the Government’s programs to build up its water infrastructure and manage its water resources in a way that will serve the country’s economic expansion”.
This project is an initiative of the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), which has provided 108 necessiting countries with loans since its establishment in 1960.
Zambia, one of the fastest-growing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, has abundant water resources, but suffers from its lack of water infrastructures, a rising water demand as well as floods and droughts, the latter having cost an estimated USD 13.8 billion over the past 30 years.
