The Malian Drinking Water Heritage Society (Somapep) recently announced that it will make 100,000 social connections in the city of Bamako in the coming months. Water will now be available through the Kabala drinking water plant.
The Bamako drinking water project is becoming more precise. Together with the Malian Drinking Water Management Company (Somagep), the Malian Drinking Water Heritage Company (Somapep) has recently announced the launch of operations in Bamako for 100,000 social connections to the drinking water network in the Malian capital.
According to these public companies, the operation will start with an initial phase of 12,000 connections through three commercial agencies in the city of Bamako. These are the Bacodjicoroni ACI branch, which will make 5,000 connections, the Faladié branch, which will make 4,500 connections, and the Banankabougou branch, which will make 2,500 connections. The other phases of the connection will begin in two months with the help of the other six commercial agencies that provide public service in other parts of Mali’s capital.
A more accessible connection!
As a result of the “100,000 social connections” operation, the Malian Drinking Water Heritage Company (Somapep) should also extend the drinking water distribution network, i.e. 1,400 km of pipeline. The network will also be connected to several storage tanks with capacities ranging from 2,000 m3 to 10,000 m3. To speed up connections, the public company has considerably reduced subscription costs. The connection will now be reduced from 120,000 CFA francs (183 euros) to 20,000 CFA francs (30 euros), a reduction of more than 80 per cent.
This significant reduction, which benefits the people of Bamako, is an integral part of Kabala’s drinking water project. The implementation of the latter took the form of the construction of a drinking-water plant and a pumping station with a daily capacity of 144,000 m3. In addition to the 100,000 connections, Somapep also plans to install 1,100 standpipes.
The project is supported by the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the French Development Agency (AFD), the African Development Fund (ADF), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the Italian Cooperation. It will cost a total of CFAF 294 billion or nearly 450 million euros.
Jean Marie Takouleu
