Water and Sanitation Project - I

The development objective of the First Water and Sanitation Project for Malawi is to increase access to improved water supply and sanitation services in Blantyre Metropolitan Area, and to enhance the operational and financial efficiency of the Blantyre Water Board (BWB). The project comprises of five components. The first component, water supply improvements will be implemented by the BWB and will finance investments in water production (motivated by the increase in flood frequency and breakdowns at the existing water treatment plant), network stabilization, leak reduction, renewable energy sources, and water network expansion to unserved areas, thereby lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and boosting water access. The second component, priority sanitation investments will finance interventions to increase access to improved sanitation and reduce environmental pollution that impacts public health, thus contributing to the global crisis response framework (GCRF) pillar 3 on climate resilience. The third component, institutional capacity strengthening will finance a set of institutional development activities. The fourth component, (TA) technical assistance and project management support will finance TA to support the project implementation unit (PIU) and the incremental operating costs for project management, including environment and social risks, communications, and project monitoring and evaluation. The fifth component, contingency emergency response (CERC) will provide preparedness and rapid response measures to address disaster, emergency and or catastrophic events in accordance with the applicable CERC manual.