1. Key development issues and rationale for Bank involvement
The Water and Sanitation Millennium Program (WSMP) represents the strategy and investment program through which the Government of Senegal intends to achieve the water and sanitation Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. It was adopted by Interministerial Decree as the main implementation tool of the 2005 Water and Sanitation Letter of Sector Policy.
By end of 2007, the level of access to (i) safe water supply is estimated at 98 percent in urban cities and 72 percent in rural areas; and (ii) to improved sanitation services at 64 percent in urban cities and 17% in rural areas. The MDGs targets are to achieve by 2015: (i) 100 percent of the urban population served (universal coverage) and 82 percent of the rural population having access to safe water; and (ii) 78 percent of the urban population and 59 percent of the rural population having access to improved sanitation services. To achieve this objective, a total financing of US$480 million is required between 2005 and 2015 for the urban water and sanitation component and US$540 million for the rural water and sanitation component.
The WSMP provides a global, programmatic framework to coordinate interventions in the sector in view to contributing to the achievement of MDGs while ensuring sustainable development of the sector. In the urban water and sanitation subsector, the WSMP strategy aims to deepen the reform process which was supported by two World Bank-funded projects and move to a second generation of reform at the expiration of the lease contract in 2011. In rural areas, the WSMP strategy marks a profound shift in project planning methods, organization and management of water services and private sector participation. It aims particularly to transfer the maintenance of motorized boreholes from public to the private sector and promote water users' associations (ASUFORR) to manage multi-village water systems. This strategy is supported by the "unified intervention framework," set as a common reference rules and tools applicable to all interventions in the sector.