The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund granted a loan of $13.2 million to Zambia in Abidjan on 17 July 2024 to implement innovative measures and improve access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene for 460,000 people in Kabwe and Bauleni. The project also aims to strengthen the resilience of the beneficiary populations to the effects of climate change.

In addition to the funding from the African Development Bank Group’s concessional loans window, the project is being supported by the European Union, the Bank Group’s strategic partner, with a grant of $6.05 million through their Nexus Energy and Water Programme for Zambia, a transformative initiative under the European Union's Global Gateway strategy.

“The project aims to improve access to better-quality water and sanitation services in the town of Kabwe (in central Zambia) and Bauleni (a district of Lusaka city) and increase the operational and financial efficiency of water and sanitation providers in Lukanga (Centre) and the capital, Lusaka,” explained Raubil Durowoju, the head of the African Development Bank Group’s Country Office in Zambia.

Among other things, the project plans to rehabilitate the Mulungushi water purification plant in Kabwe (abstraction of water from the river, pipework for untreated water, replacement of obsolete treatment and pumping equipment) to relaunch production of 37,500 cubic metres of drinking water per day. It also plans to improve water transport and distribution pipe networks, with an extension of over 70 km, and to build and equip five boreholes in the catchment areas of Kalulu (in the south-west) and Mukobeko (Centre) in Kabwe town. The project will use renewable energy technologies and introduce innovative measures, such as smart meters, to reduce operating costs through the installation of energy efficiency equipment in the water production and supply system.

It will collaborate with partners such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to strengthen the provision of water, sanitation and hygiene services and also raise awareness around integrated nutrition and hygiene services, climate resilience, waste and water management among at least 10,000 people.

The African Development Bank’s long history in the water sector in Zambia makes the institution a unique partner in supporting the Zambian government’s implementation of the project. The Bank has supported Zambia’s water sector since the late 1970s. Its first intervention, in 1979, was a water and sanitation project in five provincial centres that aimed to improve services in the towns of Choma, Kalomo, Livingstone and Monze in the south of the country. Since then, the Bank has supported a total of 14 projects to improve the long-term security of water supply and sanitation services in Zambia.