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European Investment Bank loan to boost Lesotho’s water supply

News | | By Debra Percival

The Brussels-based European Investment Bank (EIB) has pledged a €140M loan to Lesotho’s €282M Metolong Dam and Water Supply programme. Economic growth and urbanisation have increased the country’s demand for water over the past decade.

The dam is seen as a key project in the Government of Lesotho’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. It will improve water supply to the capital Maseru and other urban centres by 2013. EIB officials say the loan will be used to fund the programme’s infrastructure work including a water treatment works and will also finance environmental and social management and institutional support.

“The EIB is pleased to support the Government of Lesotho in proving a secure source of water for urban and peri-urban areas in the country,” said the Plutarchos Sakellaris, the EIB’s Vice President for lending operations in sub-Saharan Africa.

He added: “The Metolong dam is currently on schedule to provide an additional 75,000 cubic metres of clean water for 385,000 people by 2013. Close attention is being paid to ensure that all aspects of the ambitious scheme are carried out in an environmentally and socially responsible and sustainable manner, with plans already underway to enhance livelihoods of communities affected by the scheme,” said Paul Collins, Acting Chief Executive of the Metolong Authority.

Although Lesotho is a mountainous country with abundant water sources, water can be scarce during the dry season. Said Chief Morena Mpiti Thetsane of Lekhalong village: “Access to clean water has always been a struggle and taps often run dry, and we look forward to the day when the Metolong Programme answers water problems around Ha-Thetsane.”

Other investors in the project are; the World Bank, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, The African Rennaissance and International Cooperation Fund of the Republic of South Africa, the Saudi Development Fund, OPEC Fund, the Kuwait Fund and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa.

Find out more at: www.eib.org