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Ceremony for the Commissioning of the 1st phase of works for The Water and Sanitation

Project in Kisumu / 17 June 2008

Hon. Charity NGILU, Minister for Water and Irrigation and Mrs Elisabeth BARBIER, French Ambassador to Kenya, presided over the commissioning ceremony held on the 17th June 2008 in Kisumu, for the completion of the 1st phase of the Kisumu Water and Sanitation Project works.

Mr. David STOWER , The Permanent Secretary, Mr. John JUMA, Chairman of the LVSWSB, Eng. Patrick OMBOGO, CEO of the LVSWSB, Mr. Israel AGINA, Chairman of KIWASCO, Eng. David ONYANGO, Managing Director of KIWASCO, Hon. Shakeel A. Shabbir Ahmed, MP for Kisumu and Eng. Nicolas Gumbo, MP for Rarieda also witnessed the occasion. The French delegation comprised of Mr. Jean Pierre MARCELLI, Director of the French Development Agency (AFD) in Nairobi, which is funding the project, Mr. François GIL and Ms Emilie COINDET. All of them received a warm welcome from H.W. Samuel O. OKELLO, mayor of Kisumu.

The 20 Million Euro (Kshs 1.7 Billion) loan provided by AFD for this project will increase the production and quality of drinking water in Kisumu, and thus reduce the water deficit in the city. It will also improve the reliability of water supply and sanitation services in Kisumu. This project is being implemented by the Lake Victoria South Water Services Board (LVSWSB) in two phases:

A 1st phase - Short Term Action Plan (STAP) - (6 Million Euros) which focuses on rehabilitating existing water facilities (rehabilitation of water intakes, water treatment plants, water storage facilities and existing networks) and sewerage and sanitation facilities (rehabilitation of sewers, sewerage treatment plants, improvement of waste stabilization ponds and on-site sanitation)

A 2nd phase - Long Term Action Plan (LTAP) - 14 Million Euros, which is a development phase during which a comprehensive water and sanitation plan will be implemented, including connecting non-served areas. The goal of the LTAP is to increase water and sanitation coverage (new intakes, new treatment plants, new sewerage system, etc).

The project beneficiaries are the Kisumu residents (350,000 inhabitants) including those in the informal settlements.

In her speech, the French Ambassador said that the French co-operation is already involved in Kisumu: KIWASCO, with the help of the Water and Sanitation Programme of the World Bank, has sub-contracted service provision in Nyalenda to small scale local private operators, in a pilot project financed by the French Embassy.

Building on the experience of this pilot programme, the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), together with AFD under the Kisumu Water and Sanitation Project, will study and finance the provision of water and sanitation services in informal settlements including Manyatta and Nyalenda.