NI Greater Managua Water and Sanitation (PRASMA)

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The objective of the Greater Managua Water and Sanitation Project for Nicaragua is to increase access to reliable water and sanitation services to the population of the greater Managua region. There are three components to the project. The first component is the coverage extension and improvement for Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) in low-income neighborhoods. This component will only include neighborhoods that either have their water sources and supply infrastructure financed under component two, or for which such infrastructure already exists. After the intervention, all inhabitants in the targeted neighborhoods should have access to a continuous or nearly continuous supply of drinking water, as well as adequate sewers. All connections will include metering. The second component is the improvement of water supply and efficiency in selected areas. An important assumption of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) master plan's water balance study is that the technical efficiency of the network can be quite dramatically improved until 2015, thereby liberating water for the additional connections needed to increase effective coverage. In fact, according to the master plan, physical and commercial losses in the system need to be reduced from today's estimated 55 percent to 25 percent, a goal that Nicaraguan Water and Sewerage Enterprise (ENACAL) itself does not consider realistic. Finally, the third component is the institutional strengthening and project monitoring and evaluation. This component will finance various institutional strengthening activities for the utility, as well as the cost of salary, travel, and general operating costs of the personnel working on the projects implementation, along with the monitoring and evaluation activities required by the project.