Biera Dondo, Mozambique

With the inauguration of the new water treatment plant at Mutua in May 2007, an important milestone was passed in Mozambique's ambitious drive towards improving its provision of potable water and sanitation.

Doubling the supply of water to the cities of Beira and Dondo, the plant was opened by the country’s President, Armando Emílio Guebuza, the day after he formally launched the next stage of the project which will provide a new system to deal with Beira's sewage. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2007 and the work is expected to be completed in 2010.

This latest part of the scheme comprises rehabilitating the existing sanitation network together with the construction of a number of new system elements to extend and upgrade the sewers, wastewater treatment facilities and drainage system.

The new water plant cost €5.6m, while the Beira sanitation system has been budgeted at around €42m, though the eventual figure – funded by the European Commission – could rise to nearly €53m.

BACKGROUND

In 1975, after nearly 500 years as a Portuguese colony, Mozambique became an independent country – and one of the world's poorest. The brutal civil war which raged from 1977–92 did little to improve this, until in 1987, the government began a series of reforms intended to stabilise the economy, improve the country's infrastructure and improve the population's standard of living.

Access to drinking water and sanitation in Mozambique has historically been a major problem, in common with many of the nations of sub-Saharan Africa. It has been estimated that in developing countries, around 80% of all disease arises as a direct result of inadequate sanitation, poor hygiene and contaminated water.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, each day around six thousand people die from diseases caused by poor sanitation, while another 300 million Africans have no access to clean water.

For Mozambique in 1992, only around a fifth of the country's households had access to potable water and the situation for wastewater provision was even worse – a serious public health issue in a land where cholera, dysentery and other water-borne diseases are endemic.

Recognising the importance of water and wastewater provision to the health of the nation, in 1995 the government of Mozambique developed a National Water Policy, following it three years later with the First National Water Development Programme. By 2003, the proportion of households with drinking water access had risen to a third.

To improve the provision of wastewater treatment, in 2004, the National Water Directorate produced a strategy sanitation plan for seven municipalities – Beira and Dondo together with Maputo, Matola, Nampula, Pemba and Quelimane.

In December of the same year, Joaquim Chissano stepped down as President after 18 years in office, his elected successor, Armando Emílio Guebuza, pledging to continue the programme of economic and infrastructure development which encouraged growing foreign investment. Despite the great advances that Mozambique has made, such external assistance remains essential.

The European Commission is currently financing water and sanitation schemes through the European Development Funds (EDF) and Thematic Budget Lines (TBL).

In addition, the EU Water Initiative and the ACP-EU Water Facility programme allocate additional development aid funds for projects in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries – including a number of initiatives in Mozambique.

WATER AND WASTEWATER PROVISION

Before the construction of the Mutua plant – some 50km west of the port city of Beira – the inhabitants of Beira and Dondo received their water from the irrigation system at the Mafambisse sugar plantation. This could provide a mere 30,000m3/day and during the dry season, the system was prone to salt-water intrusion which significantly reduced the quality of the potable supply. The new plant has now doubled the amount of drinking water available, pumping 60,000m3/day to the two cities.

The Beira Sanitation Project is specifically intended to help improve national health by rehabilitating the existing sanitation network, constructing new system elements within the city, including a wastewater treatment plant, sewers and additional drains.

Addressing one of the main goals set out in the National Water Policy – prioritising coverage for the country's urban and near-urban areas – the project has been funded as two separate components, to cover the detailed design and the construction phase of the work. It forms a central part of a series of major improvements targeting areas which currently have low water and sanitation coverage and have been hardest hit by HIV/AIDS or are particularly vulnerable to cholera outbreaks.

In addition to the ongoing programme in Beira and Dondo, work is also to be carried out in other parts of Sofala province, along with the cities of Quelimane and Mocuba in Zambezia province and the districts of Buzi, Nhamatanda, Nicoadala and Milange.,

As of August 2006, according to UNICEF a total of 124 water points had been rehabilitated, providing water to around 115,000 people and a further 36 newly constructed, benefiting more than 37,000.

Education has been identified as a key element in promoting hygiene and improving public health, an element of the UNICEF/EU project supporting both classroom awareness programmes and the creation of 'sanitation clubs' in schools. Train-Sea-Coast GPA – a UN inter-agency collaboration – also run a separate training programme for wastewater management runs in Mozambique.

KEY PLAYERS

The project is sponsored by the Government of Mozambique, being co-ordinated by the National Water Directorate. Funding has been made available from the European Commission from the 7th and 9th rounds of the European Development Fund and the ACP-EU Water Facility, in collaboration with UNICEF.

Mozambique's Ministry of Public Works and Housing has overall responsibility for the implementation of wastewater disposal and sanitation, with responsibility for the construction work falling to the National Water Directorate and National Directorate of Public Works.

Train-Sea-Coast GPA is an inter-agency collaboration of UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, UN-DOALOS & United Nations Development Programme UNDP, with funding from the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United States of America and the government of the Flemish Region.

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