OPEC Fund Annual Report 2023

03 | THE RESULTS – DELIVERY BY SECTORS

QUENCHING THIRST ACROSS MAURITANIA

Safe drinking water and modern sanitation are require- ments for human life — so all sectors depend on these essential services. In 2023, the OPEC Fund provided US$61.2 million for water and sanitation projects in partner countries worldwide.

A largely desert country on the west coast of Africa, Mauritania ranked 158th out of 191 states in the UN’s Human Development Index 2022, with almost half the population classified as “multidimensionally poor” — reflecting a lack of access to public goods such as drinking water, sanitation, education and electricity. Although Mauritanians’ access to water is relatively high compared to many other sub-Saharan African countries, it is far from universal. Piped water supply stood nationally at 53 percent in 2020 but with major disparities between urban (66 percent) and rural areas (37 percent). Around 97 percent of Mauritania’s renewable water resources are concentrated in the Senegal River, which rises outside the country in nearby Guinea. Its location in the deep south, however, makes it difficult to pipe the water throughout the rest of the country’s 1 million square kilometers. The remaining 3 percent of renewable water resources are distributed as groundwater across Mauritania, with very little knowledge about quality, quantity and re- charge rate. This lack of data is problematic given the high risk of flooding and drought in various parts of the country — phenomena set to become more intense and frequent in the context of climate change.

That is the backdrop to the US$40 million OPEC Fund loan to the Kiffa Water Supply project. Featured in Mauritania’s National Development Plan, the project aims to meet the water needs of the residents of Kiffa, along with almost 100 nearby towns and villages, in a reliable and sustainable way up to 2050. The Kiffa Water Supply project will help settle the population, which is forced to move to cities during the summer period, particularly the capital Nouak- chott, while also contributing to the development of the socio-economic conditions of the population including the fight against illiteracy and improvement of incomes. In total, this high-priority project is set to benefit more than a quarter of a million people.