Water Supply and Sanitation Access Program (PASEA) Project

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the largest and third most populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa, is rich in natural resources. With a total land area of 234 million ha, DRC’s size is equivalent to that of Western Europe. It has a low population density of 16.1 person per km2 and an estimated 89.6 million inhabitants , of which 54.4 percent live in rural areas. DRC is one of the world’s poorest countries, with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of US$545, roughly one-third of the Sub-Saharan Africa average (US$1,499). Based on the international standard of living on less than US$1.90 a day, 73 percent of households live in poverty (2020). As of 2020, 48 million (53 percent) people lack basic water access, 76 million lack basic sanitation (84 percent), and 73 million lack basic hygiene services (81 percent). There are large urban-rural disparities in access to drinking water supply: rural basic water access is 22 percent and while in urban areas it is 74 percent. Similar, for sanitation, the open defecation rate in rural areas is 18 percent and just 4 percent in urban areas, and basic sanitation access is 11 percent in rural versus 22 percent in urban areas. Although DRC is rich in water resources, water security is hampered by lack of infrastructure, poor governance, weak institutional capacities for sustainable water and sanitation (WSS) service delivery and lack of investments in lagging rural and peri-urban areas. The water sector institutional framework is highly fragmented and poorly coordinated. The Ministry of Water Resources and Electricity (Ministere des Ressources Hydrauliques et Electricite, MRHE) is the key government institution as the main custodian of the implementation of the 2015 Water Law. Although foreseen in the law, a national policy on water supply has not yet been approved . Under the tutelage of the Ministry of Rural Development (Ministere de Developpement Rural, MDR) the National Office for Rural Hydraulics (Office National d'Hydraulique Rural, ONHR) assumes tasks for the development of rural water systems and support to rural water committees, although this entity has no mentioning in the Water Law. The 2015 Water Law also introduced new sector institutions, namely the Water Regulatory Agency (ARSPE, Autorite de Regulation du Service Public de l’Eau) responsible for economic and service level regulation and the development of water public private partnerships and the Congolese Water Authority (OCE, Office Congolais des Eaux) responsible for water resources management (WRM), although both entities have not yet been established operationally. The Water Law - in line with the decentralization process - assigns the responsibility for water and sanitation (WSS) to provinces and opens up service provision to public, private and community-based providers that operate under provincial service delegation agreements and oversight. This process is accompanied by the restructuring of the national water utility (REGIDESO), that in the long-term intends to form autonomous subsidiaries at regional/provincial level to operate provincial-owned WSS assets. On the sanitation side, a new legislative framework and roadmap for implementation needs to be developed to address fragmentation and lack of clarity in mandates along the sanitation service chain. The government is addressing basic on-site sanitation access through its National Roadmap for Eradicating Open Defecation, led by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (Ministere de l’Environnement et Developpement Durable, MEDD), specifically its Sanitation Department (Departement d'Assainissement, DAS). In doing so, it collaborates with the Ministry of Public Health (MSP, Ministere de Sante Public), notably its department for Hygiene and Public Health (Direction Hygiene et Salubrite Publique, DHSP). The Government of DRC (GoDRC) has prepared a national program to improve access and sustainability of WSS services. The National Program for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene 2020-2030 (Programme National d’Eau, Hygiene et Assainissement, PNEHA), lays out the policy priorities and desired investments, setting ambitious access targets of 80 percent for urban water, 60 percent for rural water, 70 percent for sanitation and universal access in schools and health centers by 2030. The proposed Water Supply and Sanitation Access Program (PASEA, Programme d’Acces aux Services d’Eau et d’Assainissement). PASEA uses a long-term Multi-Phase Approach (MPA) aiming to address pressing institutional challenges, create opportunities for the private sector, and reducing access gaps in water supply and sanitation services in rural and peri-urban areas. The MPA will allow for a gradual roll out of investments across nine CPF-priority provinces, with increasing responsibilities at provincial level for the full implementation of the program. A total of four phases, proposed as Investment Project Financing instruments, over an 11-year period is proposed, with a program financing envelope of US$ 1.25 billion. The Program Development Objective (PrDO) is to increase access to sustainable drinking water supply and sanitation services in selected provinces of DRC. The Project Development Objective (PDO) for phase 1 is to increase access to basic drinking water supply and sanitation services in selected provinces of DRC and to strengthen the capacities of the public and private sector for water and sanitation service delivery. Phase 1 focusses on the provinces of Kasai, Kasai Central, Kasai Oriental, and Kwilu. Phase 2 focusses on Ituri, Kongo Central, Lomami, Nord Kivu, and Sud Kivu. Phase 3 and Phase 4 scale-up implementation across all nine provinces, presumably leveraging domestic financing and potential donor co-financing. The MPA is expected to build a solid implementation foundation that will allow further acceleration through a nation-wide scale-up program with provincial-led implementation model.PASEA is fully aligned with the objectives laid out in the WBG’s DRC Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for fiscal year 2022–2026 discussed by the Board on February 23, 2022 (Report No. 168084-ZR). It will promote public and private investments in critical infrastructure to increase people’s access to basic infrastructure services (objective 2.2), strengthen transparency and governance (objective 3.2), and strengthen the foundations for inclusive economic diversification and private sector development (objective 3.3). As per the CPF focus on addressing fragility and conflict, the MPA will target provinces affected by conflict and violence, where investments in basic water supply and sanitation infrastructure will increase access, support human capital outcomes, strengthen the social contract, and unlock private sector engagement in the delivery of WASH products and services.The proposed project, phase 1 of the MPA - will focus on high-priority provinces (Kwilu, Kasai, Kasi Central, Kasai Oriental) that were identified based on several criteria, including: the rate of access to water and sanitation, the total number of people without access to basic water services, poverty levels and stunting, priority provinces under the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) and synergies with other Bank operations such as in electrification, governance, health and nutrition, and education. The targeting of interventions in decentralized territorial entities (Entite Territoriale Decentralise, ETDs), such as communes and secteurs, is based on criteria such as people without services, level of accessibility, the presence of larger villages and growth centers, and opportunities for clustering to increase efficiency of implementation. Within each ETD, an area-wide approach will be used to create significant impact. A total of 2.9 million people is expected to be served with basic water supply, and 2 million with basic sanitation under phase 1.The project is proposed to have the following components:Componen