Brussels, 19/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - The EU-ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) Water Facility, up and running since June last year, is being made tangible. The European Commission has approved co-funding for 97 investment projects in ACP countries, for a total of EUR 230 mil, to help over 10 million people to get access to safe drinking water by 2010, while at the same time around 5 million people will benefit from improved access to basic sanitation facilities. The projects were approved following a call for tender under the new Water Facility - response was 'overwhelming' explains the Commission. Nearly 800 preliminary proposals were received. A total of 97 projects can be co-financed. (The total cost of these projects is €410 mil.) Among the selected initiatives, 23 fall into the category of improved water governance (€33.2 mil), 12 are in the category of water supply and sanitation infrastructure programmes (€105 mil) and 62 are in the category of Civil Society Initiatives (€91.4 mil). A reserve list of 39 projects has been established. A second call for tender, for a total of EUR 178 mil, will be published before the end of March this year.
European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, declared: “In 2005, we undertook unprecedented commitments to increase our aid, to seek better coordination and efficiency and to set up an EU Strategy for Africa. Now it's time to deliver, actions speak louder than words. By providing access to water, we bring life to millions of people in the ACP countries.” As a consequence, the EU Council and the ACP-EC Council of Ministers concluded in 2004 that €500 million be allocated for the Water Facility. Through its 2 tranches of both €250 million, the Water Facility is more than doubling the funding already available through the 9th European Development Fund (EDF) for water and sanitation (€475 million).