Aid for Zambia's water supply 

From next year Danida will be assisting Zambia to upgrade the country's water sector with the aim of fulfilling the UN's ambitious development target of halving the number of people without access to clean water and sanitation by 2015.
Danida is about to implement a major water sector program for the partner country Zambia in southern Africa. However, the basic information concerning the water sector upon which the program is to be built is incomplete and there is no overall view of the sector.

During the autumn of 2004, four studies are to be carried out to upgrade and further develop the existing knowledge concerning the sector. COWI is performing three of the studies, which relate to water supplies and sanitation on the outskirts of towns and in low income areas, water and sanitary conditions in rural areas and an overall study that will present the principal conclusions of the three basic studies and outline the objectives, strategies and components of the program.

Study Approach

"The studies involve systemising the existing information on the way in which the water sector functions, supplementing existing knowledge with new, and then highlighting the principal problems and barriers for development. This will act as the basis for a number of recommendations to be submitted to the government of Zambia and Danida on how the overall sector program may be arranged and financed," says COWI Market Area Manager Vagn Rehøj.

These recommendations will be made with two important criteria in mind: firstly, the sector program must conform to Zambia's poverty reduction strategy - a strategy which the various countries have elaborated for combating poverty - and secondly, the sector program must aim at fulfilling the UN's global "2015 Development Target" – the so-called Millennium Development Goals ( MDG).

The goals were formulated in 2000 by the world's national and government leaders. Among the ambitions of these goals is the halving of the number of people living without clean water and sanitation before 2015.

The development of expertise

COWI already has an office in Zambia via its Interconsult subsidiary. According to Vagn Rehøj, the task is important from a marketing standpoint.

"During the course of the next five to ten years Danida will be providing Zambia with several hundred million DKK of aid for the improvement of the water sector. With the new knowledge we now accumulating on the country, naturally we hope to have an opportunity to also work on future assignments, which will be receiving financial support from Danida and other donors."

Published: 12.10.2004
By: Janne Toft Jensen, jaje@cowi.dk