Water and Sanitation

AFD’s top priority is to strengthen national and local governance to ensure there is a sustainable technical and financial management of the sector, and thereby support our partners beyond the funded projects.

Some 50% of projects provide for institutional support and over 80% include capacity building actions.

In the contexts of rapid urban and population growth experienced by many developing countries, ensuring access to water and sanitation poses a major challenge. AFD addresses this challenge by financing the construction and rehabilitation of drinking water production and distribution infrastructure, primarily targeting precarious neighborhoods and areas of urban sprawl.

These projects are defined in consultation with the authorities responsible for water and sanitation services and pay special attention to public places, such as schools and health centers. They also include hygiene awareness-raising campaigns in order to reduce the incidence of diseases related to the consumption of unsafe water.

AFD is particularly vigilant over the sustainability of the infrastructure it finances and works closely with its partners to ensure the quality and sustainability of water and sanitation services. It also ensures they are accessible to all, including the poorest.

Rural areas are not neglected: specific programs are implemented in small towns and rural villages to provide levels of service comparable to those developed in large urban centers.

To meet the strong increase in demand, AFD advocates for integrated water resources management (IWRM). This ensures that there is a concerted distribution between the various uses (agricultural, domestic, energy, industrial) and that the needs of ecosystems are taken into account.

In a context of climate change, especially droughts, our top priority is the efficiency of water use in the activities with the highest consumption: agriculture, industry and drinking water. The objective is to preserve both the quantity and quality of resources.

To preserve the quantity, we support projects to reduce losses and waste, initiatives to renew groundwater reserves, and “non-conventional” measures, such as wastewater reuse for agriculture and industry, seawater desalination and the construction of dams.

To preserve the quality, we finance the construction of domestic water treatment plants and industrial effluent treatment plants.
 

Floods are the phenomenon which affects the most people worldwide. Asia is the most exposed continent in the world: 9 out of the 10 most affected countries are Asian.

AFD finances stormwater management projects in large cities, where floods cause major damage and hinder economic development. These projects are located in vulnerable areas and improve the resilience of cities by contributing to adaptation to climate change. Our flood risk management strategy is based on three complementary and interconnected principles: prevention, preparation and a culture of risk-awareness.

To prevent risks, AFD promotes an organization of the territory which anticipates the occurrence of a flood well before the crisis situation. Our priorities: limit urbanization in flood-prone areas and manage land use. We also prepare the populations in question for the management of the crisis in order to facilitate the reaction to the occurrence of a flood. The objective: make sure people are safe and ensure a rapid return to normality of the main services and activities in the territory. Finally, we transmit a culture of risk-awareness to all stakeholders (public and private institutions, civil society and the population) to improve the resilience and adaptation capacity of cities.