Brussels, 01/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Providing access to drinking water and cleansing facilities in sub-Saharan Africa, as the EU does via development projects, is vital; ensuring the sustainability of these projects is even more important, and there's the rub, stressed the Court of Auditors in a report published on Friday 28 September on the management of the European Commission's aid in this area. Born of an audit focussing on the examination of 23 projects implemented in six countries (Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania), this special report (no. 13/2012) analyses the relevance of this kind of aid with regard to the needs and priorities of the countries in question, and the effectiveness of the work of the EU.
The Court concludes that the EU support has made it possible to improve access to drinking water and basic cleansing services, but that the sustainability of the projects leaves much to be desired. In order to rectify this, it recommends the European Commission makes better use of its procedures in order to maximise the long-term advantages generated by the development expenditure of the EU in this part of the world and this sector. Although its project management procedures cover issues of sustainability exhaustively, the Commission does not make the necessary use of this to increase the likelihood that the projects will have sustainable beneficial effects, the Court of Auditors states. Because although, generally speaking, the materials were set up as planned and were in a state of functioning at the time of the audit, fewer than half of the projects examined have produced results which respond to the needs of the beneficiaries.
Globally, the projects examined favour the use of a standard technology and materials available locally. They were therefore technologically sustainable, but for the majority of projects, the advantages tail off in the medium and longer term, due to a lack of financial viability and insufficient institutional capacity.
After delivery, the advantages drawn from the projects regarding water and cleansing can be guaranteed only if these generate a reliable level of income which is sufficient to cover the functioning costs, including the ongoing maintenance and, if necessary, repairs, the Court of Auditors stresses. In order to respond to the fundamental needs of less-favoured and vulnerable people, the financial viability of the projects must be ensured by the creation of appropriate tariff structures and recovery systems. The report reveals that of the 23 projects examined, in just four cases had the tariffs been set at a level to make it possible to cover the operating costs. The persistence of institutional shortcomings (limited capacity of operators to get the installed material working) is the other obstacle to be overcome. The Court takes the view that plans aiming to guarantee sustainability after delivery of the projects could be created when projects presenting an analysis of local funding operations are devised and that it is possible to eliminate practical obstacles to tariff-setting and recovery at the time of detailed project design, by proposing, for example, training in the framework of the implementation of the project. (AN/transl.fl)