The project’s goals

• In Africa, more than half of the 487 million people living in rural areas have neither safe water nor sanitation services.

• Today in rural Mali, only 49% of the population has access to safe drinking water and 5% to sanitation.

• Ensuring this fundamental right both in cities and in the countryside is vital. The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group is taking on the challenge of supplying water to 300 million people by 2015 and the Fondation Chirac has decided to be a spokesperson for an exemplary project and firstly supports it through collaboration in Mali.

The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative

The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI) is one of the main initiatives of the Bank to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa. It was initiated in 2002 to address the problem of low access to water supply and sanitation in rural Africa where the majority of the population lives.

Supported by the AFD Group (Agence française de développement), this action is an exemplary project because it ensures user training and because it gives more independence in the management to the population.

The RWSSI in Mali: the plan for strengthening capacity in rural areas

In Mali, the RWSSI aims to give water access to 440,000 people, domestic sanitation services to 110,000 people and public sanitation services to 16,500 people in the regions of Gao, Koulikoro and Ségou, in rural zone.

This project wants to rise:

• The access water rate to 82% in 2015, (4,2 million people)
• The access sanitation services rate to 20% in 2010,  (1,04 millions people)

Partner: the The African Development Bank Group

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group’s mission is to help reduce poverty, improve living conditions for Africans and mobilize resources for the continent’s economic and social development. With this objective in mind, the institution aims at assisting African countries – individually and collectively – in their efforts to achieve sustainable economic development and social progress. Combating poverty is at the heart of the continent’s efforts to attain sustainable economic growth. To this end, the Bank seeks to stimulate and mobilize internal and external resources to promote investments as well as provide its regional member countries with technical and financial assistance.

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