Chad Secures Funding to Expand Access to Basic Services and Infrastructure in its Main Cities

Washington, United States of Amercia – The World Bank’s Executive Board 2007-03-06 approved a project aimed at the sustainable expansion of access to basic services and infrastructure by the residents of Chad’s five main cities (extension of water networks in low-income neighborhoods through the construction of standpipes, building of drains in order to facilitate water drainage, and construction of earth roads to improve access to isolated low-income neighborhoods).

The cost of the Urban Development Project [Projet d’Appui au Développement Urbain PADUR] stands at US$27 million (approximately CFAF 13.8 billion). IDA will provide US$15 million in funding for the project (approximately CFAF 7.6 billion) and the Chadian Government, US$12 million (approximately CFAF 6.1 billion).

Funding will be used to build the capacity of the technical and financial departments of the municipalities and deconcentrated services over a five-year period, with a view to bolstering the financial and technical resources needed to maintain equipment and urban infrastructure in the cities of N’Djamena, Sarh, Moundou, Abéché, and Doba.

The PADUR, which is fully in line with the Government’s urban sector policy, will therefore contribute to:

• Increasing the number of people in urban areas who have access to potable water. The activities financed under the PADUR will pave the way for the provision of potable water to more than 63,000 urban dwellers;
• Reducing the number of persons who face the risk of periodic floods. The drainage work financed through the PADUR will protect over 72,000 persons from periodic floods;
• Promoting small and medium sized enterprises and creating jobs for unskilled workers in the most disadvantaged population groups, through the work carried out. Most of the work envisioned is simple and easily lends itself to the use of labor-intensive techniques. The PADUR will be able to generate employment equivalent to at least 610,000 man-days over the next five years;
• Providing training and equipment to project beneficiary municipalities in such a way that they make optimal use of their resources in order to enhance and sustain the level and quality of services provided to the urban population;
• Boosting local tax revenues through taxes levied and collected;
• Increasing significantly the revenue derived from economic infrastructure, a currently under-tapped area (markets, bus stations, slaughter houses, etc.); and
• Improving urban management, in particular through the financing of 14 model urban plans that will serve as a basis for future national investments in the sector.

For more information on World Bank activities in sub-Saharan Africa, please visit: http://www.worldbank.org/afr

For more information on World Bank activities in Chad, please visit: http://www.worldbank.org/afr/chad

For more information on this project, please visit the project website: Chad: Urban Development Project