Context
The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the most water-rich countries in the world. Nevertheless, only one in four Congolese has access to safe drinking water and no more than one in five has adequate sanitation facilities. These figures are significantly lower than the regional average for sub-Saharan Africa where 60% of people have access to clean water and 30% to sanitation.
The Congolese water sector does not have an appropriate legal framework in place to remedy this situation. It also lacks coordinated planning, functional governmental institutions, efficient water providers and well-qualified personnel.
Objective
The institutional and legal conditions in place in the Democratic Republic of Congo enable the population to have sustainable access to drinking water and sanitation.
Approach
Water is a priority area of German development cooperation in the Congo. The project works on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to support the Congolese Government in reforming the water sector. This initiative is a joint programme with KfW Development Bank, which is repairing and expanding drinking water supply and sanitation services in 21 towns and cities.
The project supports the development and implementation of sustainable building blocks for reform with the main aim of safeguarding access to drinking water supply and sanitation for the poor population in the long term. It is also improving legal and planning certainty for the water sector, which is helping to create a positive investment climate.
In particular, GIZ assists the Congolese Government through:
strategic and technical advice on designing and implementing individual elements of the reform
This advice focuses on strategies and legislation that aim to provide a lasting solution to the challenges of ensuring effective service provision and safeguarding access to drinking water and sanitation.
promoting long-term policy dialogue between water sector institutions
The aim of this measure is to ensure that all stakeholders can shape the reform in a self-determined and autonomous way, as well as to enhance cooperation among different institutions.
measures to strengthen personnel and institutional skills and resources, together with measures to make authorities and municipalities more effective.
Results achieved so far
A comprehensive water management law geared towards national development goals was adopted in September 2010 thanks to cooperation among all relevant stakeholders in the water sector. The government also formulated an action plan for the further development of the drinking water sector by 2020. The action plan safeguards implementation of all elements of the reform and thus also serves to harmonise interventions by international donors and to ensure they orientate their activities around the national agenda. Two pioneering policies for drinking water supply and sanitation have been elaborated based on the water management law and the action plan.
These policies have been implemented in the pilot province of Kasaï-Oriental since the start of 2014. The project provides specific support to improve the ability of municipalities to efficiently meet the needs of the local population.