BURKINA FASO: the country needs €1.2bn to improve access to water by 2025

Like many countries in Africa, Burkina Faso is facing water shortages. To improve this service linked to sanitation and hygiene by 2025, the country will need to mobilise funding of 852.74 billion CFA francs (nearly €1.26 billion), according to WaterAid Burkina Faso. This was revealed in a study conducted by the international organisation, the results of which were presented on 19 May 2023, during a workshop in the capital Ouagadougou.

Between 2023 and 2025, Burkina Faso will need 852.74 billion CFA francs (about 1.26 billion euros) to improve drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services for its populations. This is the estimate of the Centre for Information, Training and Studies on the Budget (CIFOED) in a study report on the financing of the water, sanitation and hygiene sector.

The study, presented on 19 May 2023, is the initiative of WaterAid Burkina Faso, which in its policy aims to enable poor populations to access these three basic services. In 2021, drinking water coverage in the West African country was 76% according to the Sahel Alliance. In the same year, just 20% of Burkinabé had access to sanitation services in rural areas and 36% in urban areas, according to official figures.

WaterAid Burkina Faso estimates that 154.18 billion CFA francs (€235 million) are procured and 698.56 billion CFA francs (about €1.1 billion) need to be mobilised to cover the costs of Wash interventions in Burkina Faso over the next three years. “Water development accounts for an average of 46.84% of the funding to be mobilised, followed by drinking water supply, which accounts for 36.51%. Wastewater and excreta treatment and integrated water resources management represent 10.07% and 6.59% respectively,” the report says.

The realisation of this study required the expertise of about 50 CIFOED actors, who worked on the database from 2017 to 2021. In addition to improving Wash services in the West African country, the recent report should enable the Burkinabe government to increase the portfolio of water and sanitation projects, serve the parliament for the vote of laws and amplify drinking water and sanitation issues at budgetary level.

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Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will be able to use the report on the financing of the water, sanitation and hygiene sector in Burkina Faso to strengthen their advocacy on the challenges per sector. “We know that the member countries of the United Nations (UN) have organised a meeting in New York in the United States of America in July 2023. We hope that this study, which covers the years 2017 to 2025, will be approved and the need for water and sanitation will no longer be an obstacle for the population,” says Celestin Pouya, WaterAid’s Advocacy and Communications Director.