SAFE WATER
Water is life
Underpinning urbanization with clean water and efficient sanitation creates the conditions for successful development. The OPEC Fund has been working in the field since inception
T here is no life without water. For a development institution like the OPEC Fund this has always meant that projects securing the supply of clean water, providing efficient sanitation and safeguarding hygiene standards preventing the spread of illness have to be a priority. The mandate was taken seriously from the outset: The first project in the sector was signed in 1977, shortly after the OPEC Fund’s inception.
Over the following five decades this commitment has remained a lodestar for the institution as also reflected in numbers: To date, the OPEC Fund has engaged in 101 water and sanitation projects for a total of US$10.9 billion.
They mirror the entire length and breadth of the OPEC Fund’s approach spanning 53 countries from Albania to Zambia and focused on the Global South in the spirit of the writer Kahlil Gibran’s words: “In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.”
OPEC Fund approved: US$60 million
CÔTE D’IVOIRE Abidjan Water Supply Reinforcement Project
With temperatures of over 30°C in eight out of 12 months of the year, the supply of water is of paramount importance for Abidjan, the capital of Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa. The situation is further exacerbated by a rapidly growing population, leading to an acute water shortage. The OPEC Fund in 2007 approved a US$6 million loan for works to expand the urban water supply network with the goal to improve the reliable supply of safe drinking water, particularly in poor areas and informal settlements. The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) joined with a US$15.1 million loan and the government committed US$3.4 million to the project which was successfully completed at the end of 2014.
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ARGENTINA Córdoba Sanitation System Development Project A US$60 million OPEC Fund loan approved in 2018 supported a US$112 million government project to improve the health and living conditions for more than 400,000 people in Córdoba in central Argentina. The project included the construction of 53.7 km of sewage pipelines, 17 pumping stations and four sewage treatment plants. Concluded in June 2024, the investment contributed to a reduction of environmental pollution and helped boost critical economic activities such as agriculture and tourism.
OPEC Fund approved: US$6 million
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