Car project for Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation in Three Divisional Headquarters and Surrounding Rural Areas Appraisal Report

1.3 
Aid Coordination 
1.3.1 
The drinking water supply and sanitation sector in the CAR, in general, and in 
urban areas, in particular, hardly receives any financing (with the highest proportion being 
3.4% of the total aid disbursed in 2008). The few fragmented facilities that exist are mainly 
financed with external resources. Apart from the ADB, the main donors currently involved in 
the sector are: the European Union (EU) within the framework of “Development Poles
1
”, the 
AFD (which provided budget support to SODECA in 2007 and support for the rehabilitation of 
the hydroelectric power plant in Bouali), the World Bank, UNICEF and some NGOs. Ongoing 
operations include: an Emergency Urban Infrastructure Development Project with a water and 
sanitation component financed by the World Bank; an Institution Building Project for the DGH 
and a Rural Water and Sanitation Project financed by the EU. Under the 10
th
EDF Resource 
framework, the European Union is preparing the Development Pole project which could cover 
two of the sixteen divisional headquarters studied, namely Bambari and Bozoum. According to 
the EU, investing in these towns will help to enhance local development and decentralization 
and will allow them to actually hold sway over their administrative impact area. The World 
Bank is preparing a DWSS project in Bangui for 2010. Thus, the World Bank and the AFD have 
concentrated their efforts in Bangui, while the Bank, UNICEF and the EU direct their aid mainly 
to secondary towns and rural areas. The World Bank made this choice considering the limited 
resources it currently has and in a bid to contribute to improving the financial situation of 
SODECA, since this corporation is currently facing serious difficulties. The AWF is financing a 
comprehensive institutional support to the DWSS sector through a grant approved in July 2009. 
1
The development pole is an approach aimed at considering a region as a coherent and homogenous economic entity 
with a specific economic orientation based on its resources, potential and comparative advantages. This approach 
incorporates all development aspects, including DWSS facilities
. 

---

3