Published on: 11/04/2011
GIZ and JICA have signed an agreement to collaborate in water and sanitation in Zambia, Uganda and Kenya. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have agreed to plan, implement and evaluate their projects collectively in future. There are plans to extend the cooperation to other countries as well.
Zambia
In Zambia, GIZ works on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Zambia, providing advisory services to the government and urban water providers. JICA implements infrastructure and technical assistance projects, in both urban and rural areas. The two agencies have not set a time limit for their cooperation, but they have agreed biannual evaluations.
In Zambia, for instance, GIZ has cooperated with the government to develop a new concept for supplying water to slum areas, which concentrates on ‘water kiosks’ – public sales points connected to the mains water supply. These have so far opened the way to clean drinking water for more than 600,000 people. Now, assisted by GIZ, JICA will use this approach for wider application in other parts of the country. At the same time, GIZ will help spread the use of a maintenance system for rural water supplies, which was developed with Japanese support, to other regions of Zambia. This will benefit about 500,000 people.
Uganda
Here GIZ and JICA are working together improve sanitation in schools and poor urban areas, and in climate adaptation measures for water supply.
Kenya
In Kenya, both agencies are collaborating to reduce water losses in distribution networks, are helping promote more effective use of scarce water resources by the state.
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Source: GIZ, 07 Apr 2011
