The government of Côte d'Ivoire is planning to provide the town of Céchi, located about 60 km from the administrative division of Agboville in Côte d'Ivoire, with a drinking water supply system. The environmental and social impact study for the project is already underway.
The town of Céchi, located some 60 km from the department of Agboville in Côte d’Ivoire, will soon have its own drinking water supply system. 2D Consulting Afrique, a firm specializing in environmental issues, has recently started the environmental and social impact study of the drinking water project at the request of the government. This includes the collection of data in the field and a public consultation that will take into account the positive and negative impacts of the drinking water supply project on the populations.
The installation will ultimately improve access to drinking water for the inhabitants of the sub-prefecture capitals of Céchi and Pacobo, located respectively in the Agnéby and Agnéby Tiassa regions in southern Côte d’Ivoire. For several years, these towns have been struggling with water shortages. In the locality of Céchi, drinking water will be supplied through an urban hydraulic system, i.e. by catchment (either from a borehole or from a surface water withdrawal).
The drinking water supply project in Céchi is part of the “Water for All” programme launched in 2017 in the country by the Ivorian government. The aim of this programme, estimated at 1320 billion CFA francs (over 2 billion euros), is to enable all inhabitants of Côte d’Ivoire to have access to drinking water by 2030. This will be achieved through the establishment of mechanisms for the rational and sustainable management of available water resources.
The programme will be implemented in two phases. The first phase, which will eventually cost 200 billion CFA francs (about 305 million euros), started in 2016 and will end in 2020. It includes the construction of 200 water towers and 8,000 village pumps. This phase also includes the repair of 21,000 existing village pumps and the connection of 450,000 households to the network of the water distribution company of Côte d’Ivoire (Sodeci). The objective is to increase drinking water coverage to an average of 82.5% in the country by 2020, with a level of 60% for rural areas and 85% for urban areas.
The second phase of the “Water for All” programme will cover all the structural projects and the extension and densification of the network of large cities. It will require financing of 1 120 billion CFA francs, the equivalent of more than 1.7 billion euros.
Inès Magoum
