ADDIS ABABA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The African Development Bank (AfDB) has announced a 46 million U.S. dollars grant to improve access to water and sanitation for pastoral communities in Ethiopia.
The financial support from the African Development Fund, the bank group's concessional financing window for low-income countries, is intended to improve access to integrated, sustainable, climate-smart, gender-sensitive water supply and sanitation services for pastoral communities in the arid lands of the Borana area in Ethiopia's Oromia region, the AfDB said Thursday.
Noting that Borana's population is growing rapidly with majority of them relying on pastoralism for their livelihood, the bank said the area is subject to the effects of varying rainfall levels and recurrent drought that lead to water insecurity.
The financial support will be used mainly to implement the second phase of the Borana Resilient Water Development for Improved Livelihoods Program, which envisaged optimizing water production and transport systems, building reservoirs, distribution systems and connections to give 36,000 new users access to drinking water, it said.
According to the bank, as of March 2023, over 3.3 million livestock have died of water scarcity in the area, leaving over 67,000 households without livelihoods. It said the climate impacts on pasture and water availability further tend to exacerbate tensions over land and water resources. ■
