IDB offers grants to jump-start water and sanitation projects

Latin American and Caribbean governments that want to improve water and sanitation services can now apply for grants from the Aquafund, a new source of financing approved by the board of the Inter-American Development Bank on 19 September 2008.

The Aquafund is a fast-disbursing vehicle intended to help accelerate the development of projects in the water, sanitation and solid waste disposal sectors. It can be used to finance activities ranging from pre-feasibility studies to technical training and knowledge dissemination, depending on specific local needs.

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During the rest of 2008, the Aquafund could disburse up to $15 million in grants from the IDB’s ordinary capital. Starting in 2009, Aquafund will also mobilize matching contributions from multiple donor countries, providing up to $35 million in grants during the calendar year. Aquafund will also be able to receive contributions from private sources.

Aquafund grants can be used to support projects that subsequently receive both loans with either sovereign or non-sovereign guarantees. It is expected to finance activities such as improvements in the legal and regulatory framework, water resource management, and capacity building at municipal, state and national level. Aquafund grants will also be available directly to water, sanitation and solid waste service operators.

“We have set ourselves the goal of financing projects with 100 of the region’s cities and 3000 of its rural communities by 2011, and Aquafund is going to be a key resource for municipalities that need help getting projects off the ground”, said Federico Basañes, chief of the Water and Sanitation Division at the IDB.

See also:

• Latin America: Spain launches US$ 1.5 billion Water Fund, Source Weekly, 10 Dec 2007
• IDB Water and Sanitation Initiative [Apr 2008]
• Peru gets US$80mn from Spanish water and sanitation fund [25 May 2008]

Source: IDB, 19 Sep 2008

SWITCH Training workshop: ‘Advancing Learning Alliances to increase research impact’, 26-28 Nov 2008, Brazil

Organised by: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre for the SWITCH project on “Managing Water for the City of the Future”.

The aim of the workshop is to advance and consolidate the establishment of learning alliances in SWITCH and other similar projects and programmes through the sharing of experiences and lessons learned. Specific issues will be addressed that are known to be important (and perhaps problematic), such as social inclusion in learning alliance processes and high quality documentation of the impacts of learning alliance activities. Given the location of the workshop in Latin America, there will be particular emphasis on experiences from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking SWITCH cities (Belo Horizonte, Lima, Zaragoza and Cali) and some of the workgroups will therefore be conducted in Spanish.

The workshop is aimed at both SWITCH and external participants involved in research and development projects and programmes that follow learning alliance or similar multi-stakeholder approaches from Latin America and elsewhere.

More information

Ecuador: Government to carry out water census, launch new water law

The Ecuadorian government is designing a national water plan, which will involve carrying out a water use census, during the first quarter of 2009. The census seeks to determine how water is being used in the country, said national water ministry Senagua head Jorge Jurado was quoted as saying. It will help determine the number of both real and illegal water connections, and contamination sources. Water rates will be adjusted “to make them fairer”. The 1972 water law will be replaced.

Source: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 08 Sep 2008

Brazil – Sanitation is an issue of national policy

Sanitation is one of the worst public services in Brazil. While 92.7% of homes have electricity and 75.2% have access to the water network, only 47% of households have sewage collection services.

Moreover, only one in three Brazilians have sewage collection and treatment services simultaneously.

Only 20% of sewage produced is treated, meaning the other 80% ends up in rivers, lakes, fountains and the ocean.

The statistics are from a study carried out by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) at the request of the Intituto Trata Brasil (ITB), an NGO set up at the end of last year by companies interested in developing this sector.

To learn more about the sector, the consequences of low service coverage and possible solutions, BNamericas spoke with ITB executive director Raul Graça Couto Pinho.

More – BNamericas