By Lamin Kujabi & Anna Marie
His Excellency, President Adama Barrow, on Saturday, 17th May, laid the foundation stone for constructing a massive water supply project dubbed WASIB, in Sifoe village, for West Coast and the Greater Banjul Area.
Implemented by the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC) under the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy and Mines, the WASIB project is partly a grant (€29 million) from the Government of France through the French Development Agency, and an expected concessional facility of €30.1 million from the European Investment Bank.
Speaking on the occasion, President Barrow described the project as a transformative initiative that marks another giant leap in the national journey towards universal access to clean and safe drinking water.
He explained that in his government’s quest to attain universal access to safe drinking water, it has decided to separate NAWEC into two entities for water and electricity. “The objective is to devote closer attention to developing and implementing appropriate water projects nationwide,” he affirmed.
He went on: “This strategy is expected to help achieve universal access to clean and safe drinking water, hence the launch of the WASIB project”.
The project, he said, is initiated to have a wider coverage and to significantly and positively impact as many lives as feasible.
The President then announced that his government will construct a state-of-the-art Water Quality Monitoring Laboratory, provide access to clean water for eighty thousand (80,000) new beneficiaries, and improve supply for nine hundred and twenty thousand (920,000) residents.
Also speaking at the event on behalf of the Governor of West Coast Region, Lamin Saidykhan, Governor of North Bank Region, described water as the foundation of life, and thanked the government for the initiative.
Stephane Dovert, Charge De Affairs at the French embassy, said the project marks part of decisive steps towards strengthened friendship and cooperation between The Gambia and France.
“The ceremony was attended by several ministers, secretary to cabinet and head of civil service, chief of staff and minister of the presidency, security chiefs, NAWEC staff and a cross section of the beneficiaries.
The WASIB project is structured into short-, medium-, and long-term strategic phases that involve rehabilitation works for a period of eighteen (18) months.
The design also includes constructing a new five-hundred-cubic-metre (500 m³) water treatment plant in Sifoe, to be supported by a one-thousand-two-hundred-cubic-metre (1,200 m³) ground storage tank. Additional 14 new boreholes, including four deep wells, will be commissioned.
The medium-term component incorporates expanding the distribution network by one hundred thousand kilometres (100,000 Km) in greenfield areas and two hundred thousand kilometres (200,000 km) in brownfield zones. This phase is expected to commence in 2026 for completion in 2027.
