African News Agency : Welcome

Brussels, 21 Dec - (ANA) -The European Union (EU) will support the building of a desalination plant using renewable energy to provide water to 200,000 inhabitants, who represent one-fourth of the country’s population. Announcing the funding, Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said: "Access to water is a human right and it’s unacceptable that insufficient water supply can be a source of conflict, as Djibouti recently experienced." Djibouti suffers from an acute water shortage and has recently endured a prolonged drought, which has led to a serious food crisis in the country. The lack of access to water has led to recent fighting and riots in the country. Current demand for water in the capital Djibouti City (where around 75% of the population lives) is estimated at 80,000 m3 per day but only 36,000m3 per day is currently being supplied. The new EU-funded project PEPER (Producing Safe Drinking Water with Renewable Energy) will set up a desalination plant in the capital to directly respond to these needs- providing affordable and clean drinking water. Almost half of the 560,000 inhabitants of the city of Djibouti live in Balbala, which has a poverty rate in excess of 70 percent. The water produced is taken from the local aquifer; the only source of potable water for the city, which has reached its physical limit. Its quality is poor due to sea water intrusion, which has health and social consequences for the most vulnerable parts of the population, in particular children and women. The situation is aggravated by the high population growth in the capital which is expected to see demand for water more than double in the next 20 years. (ANA)