Gambia - Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project

The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (RWSSP) for The Gambia, developed as a project grant under JAS/ADF XII (Joint Assistance Strategy/African Development Fund XII) and the Government of The Gambia’s PRSP II focus (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper), will provide rural water supply and sanitation facilities and services to improve community health in the country's five rural regions. It will also facilitate building the capacity of local authority institutions (regional area councils), Village Development Committees (VDCs), reflecting the Government’s commitment to decentralized decision making by focusing implementation at the district level. With its strong community-based approach, the Project will help extend reach to RWSS service provision to the North Bank, Central River, Lower River, Western and South Bank regions. While recent interventions in rural water supply have provided new drinking water facilities, very little work has been done to address the poor sanitation. This project will address both, and will adopt an integrated water and sanitation approach in implementation. The design of water and sanitation facilities is aimed at providing a satisfactory service using the most appropriate technology to achieve the project's objectives at minimum capital, operation and maintenance costs, energy consumption, imported materials and highly skilled expertise requirements. The designs also conform to the Gambian national design standards regarding such factors as minimum ground water yields, minimum and maximum pressures, safe disposal of human faecal matter well as for various categories of consumers and users.