IVORY COAST: 2,200 water boreholes will be carried out in rural areas by 2025

06 11 2023 | 20:25Inès Magoum / AFRIK21

In Côte d'Ivoire, the “drinking water” component of the second phase of the government's social program (PSgouv 2) has been launched. This stage of the program will allow the construction of 2,200 boreholes equipped with human-powered pumps in 17 of the country's 31 regions.

After the first phase of the Government Social Program (PSGouv 1) between 2019 and 2020, which notably made it possible to improve the supply of drinking water to rural populations through the rehabilitation of 1,106 human-powered pumps and the maintenance of 10 639 of them, the government of Côte d'Ivoire is launching the "drinking water" component of Psgouv 2. This stage of the program will allow the creation of 2,200 new human-powered pumps to further secure access to water drinking water in rural areas, as well as in semi-urban areas.

These drillings will be carried out in 17 of the 31 regions of Côte d'Ivoire. The Ivorian Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene has entrusted the work to Saher, the local subsidiary of the French company Vergnet Hydro. As part of its contract, the company should deliver all of the human-powered pumps no later than February 2025.

The 2,200 new hydraulic installations should improve drinking water supply to nearly 900,000 people out of an Ivorian population of more than 29 million inhabitants according to the final overall results of the General Population and Housing Census (RGPH 2021).

The PSGouv 2 which allows the realization of these new drillings has a budget of 3.2 billion CFA francs (approximately 4.85 million euros) The program was launched on January 22, 2022 in Tougbo, in the Téhini department, Bounkani region. It also aims to combat fragility in the northern border areas, and to accelerate education and training, professional integration, improving living conditions in households and strengthening solidarity.

h