Brussels, 12/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) has announced a EUR 50 million loan to cover investment necessary to ensure drinking water supplies to around 70 local medium-sized communities in Morocco. The loan for the Office national d'eau potable (ONEP or National Drinking Water Bureau) for improving water supply services in areas where production and distribution have already reached capacity, or will soon do so, will cover work in 2001-2004. The project will increase to 84-90% the proportion of people in the areas concerned who have drinking water supplies, covering some 500,000 inhabitants in 120 additional local communities and 800,000 inhabitants of rural zones.
With this third loan to the ONEP, the total amount of funding for drinking water supplies in Morocco has reached EUR 140 million. It supplements, upstream, EIB funding for agricultural irrigation and water purification projects, thereby covering the entire water cycle.