The office of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia has approved the 1.7 billion birr soft loan from the Export-Import Bank of China for the water wells project of the Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority.
The loan has been referred to the Budget and Finance Standing Committee of the House of Representatives before being tabled before the Parliament for final approval.
The project will be launched after receiving final approval and is expected to be complete in two year’s time.
The loan will be payable in 20 years with an interest rate of two percent.The project is intended to provide 24 wells to source 70,000 cubic meters of water a day. The project will plan an additional six wells to make up for an estimated 25% failure rate.
The authority had inaugurated a similar project near Gelan to generate 73,000 cubic meters of water at a cost of 584 million birr. The cost of the Akaki Project, which has just nine more wells, is three times the cost due to inflation and other factors according to Asegid Getachew, General Manager of the AAWSA.
The AAWSA has currently achieved 93pc coverage in the city from a range of water sources at Dire, Gefersa, and Legedadi each providing 1,300 m3, 30,000 m3, and 150,000 m3 every day while the existing wells at Akaki provide 146,000 cubic meters, daily.
Source: Addis Fortune
