Burundi Water Supply and Sanitation Access Project

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The Burundi Water Supply and Sanitation Access Project aims to increase access to climate-resilient water supply and sanitation services and to strengthen the capacity of water operators. The project aims to provide safely managed drinking water services to previously unserved populations and to improve the quality of services from basic to safely managed drinking water services in Bujumbura through expanding production capacity , distribution systems and household connections. For rural areas, the project aims to improve access to at least basic water supply and sanitation services in selected communes prioritized by the government. Moreover, the project will improve access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in selected schools and health centers within the rural communes. Aligned with the regional Multi-phase Programmatic Approach (MPA) on Accelerating Access to WASH services in the Eastern and Southern Africa (AFE) region - the AFE WASH Access MPA, the proposed components are the following:Component 1: Strengthening National WASH Platform, Governance and Reforms. Subcomponent 1.1.National WASH Programming and Platform is aligned with pillar 1 of the AFE WASH Access MPA and finances technical assistance, training and equipment to develop and implement sector-wide monitoring platforms for WASH access, medium term investment plans, joint sector reviews and future investment preparation studies, such as for Gitega. Subcomponent 1.2 Advancing Governance and Reforms is aligned with pillar 2 of the AFE WASH Access MPA and finances technical assistance, training and equipment to address governance bottlenecks and support the implementation of reform measures to enable private capital mobilization for investments in the sector in the medium term. This includes the development of regulatory instruments and policies, tariff studies, transaction advisory services, capacity development for sector ministries, the national water and sanitation regulatory entity and other sector stakeholders, as well as selected communes benefiting from investments. Component 2: Service Providers Performance Improvement: This component, mapped to pillar 3 of the AFE WASH Access MPA, finances works, equipment, technical assistance, training for the national water utility REGIDESO as well as for rural water supply providers and the rural water agency. Subcomponent 2.1 finances the implementation of REGIDESO's Performance Improvement Action Plan, including Non Revenue Water (NRW), digitalization, and water quality management improvements, household connections and technical advice for REGIDESO to develop a pro-poor household connection policy and funding mechanism. Subcomponent 2.2. finances the preparation of delegation contracts between communes and private water operators, capacity development for professionalization of domestic private water operators, household connections for rural population, as well as vocational and professional development programs for job creation in the water sector.Component 3: Increasing Climate-Resilient Water Supply and Sanitation Access . This Components aligns with Pillar 4 of the AFE WASH Access MPA. Subcomponent 3.1 finances infrastructure investments in climate -resilient urban water supply distribution and production systems for Bujumbura, including civil works for a new water intake and water treatment plant, pumping station(s), transmission mains, reservoirs and distribution network, as well as related electro-mechanical equipment and SCADA systems. Subcomponent 3.2 finances rehabilitation and construction of solar-based climate-resilient rural water systems in selected commune(s), behavior change campaigns, material support for durable sanitation facilities, and education activities for girls on menstrual hygiene management. Component 4: Project Management and Coordination. This component finances the overall project management, monitoring and coordination costs, including operating costs and participation in international and regional knowledge and learning activities. It also finances the coordination costs for Burundi stakeholders related to their effective participation in the AFE WASH Access MPA.