Financing Agreement amounting to $210 million signed between the FDRE Ministry of Finance and the World Bank to support the Ethiopia Groundwater (GW) for Resilience Project
A financing Agreement amounting to $210 million (ETB 10,880,457,000.00) that is made up 100 % grant is signed today between the FDRE Ministry of Finance and the World Bank which will be used to support the government’s endeavor to support the Ethiopia Groundwater (GW) for Resilience Project.
The agreement was signed by His Excellency Ahmed Shide and Mr. Boutheina Guermazi Director AFWRI. By docu Sign (Electronic Signature and agreement)
The resource will be used to increase the sustainable access and management of groundwater in the Horn of Africa’s (HoA) borderlands, The Project is part of a regional HoA initiative that aims to strengthen the resilience of targeted communities through the management and collaborative use of the groundwater resources. Phase 1 of the Project includes three countries: the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the Republic of Kenya, and the Federal Republic of Somalia, as well as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
Ground water plays an important part in the water resource management of the country. Despite the notable potential for GW in the country, studies show that the national Ground Water Knowledge coverage for Ethiopia stands at only 17%. The lack of knowledge on GW is attributing to high failure of GW sources, uncontrolled abstraction of GW sources and ultimately inefficient management of this important resource.
The Project is highly important as its response to this key challenge. It supports Ministry of Water and Energy to carry out GW potential assessment and knowledge-based expansion in prioritized 67 woredas. Additionally, the Project finances the development of GW based water supply in 55 prioritized woredas in the country and development of GW based small scale irrigation development in 4 woredas of Borena area.
The Project will also build regional and national institutional and information capacity on groundwater management and help to bring the major actors towards sustainable development and use of groundwater sources. In addition, the project will contribute to build trust and relationships on transboundary groundwater management, as the key resource to increase resilience in the borderlands, helping, in the long term, diffuse tension among HoA countries.
Source: MoF Ethiopia