The overall objective of the project is to improve access to safe and affordable water and enhance livelihoods of vulnerable households in urban and peri-urban areas of Hargeisa city, through expanded supply of drinking water from sustainable water sources, and associated creation of employment opportunities.<?xml:namespace>
The project will address the issue of urban water supply in Hargeisa Town, by increasing the capacity of main water infrastructure components that are currently providing most of the water to the city. It intends to achieve a significant expansion of the safe water supply coverage in Hargeisa, thus contributing to greater accessibility and affordability of water, a lower portion of average household income that is used to gain access to water, improved public health and hygiene, greater volumes of relatively low-cost water available for commercial enterprises and industries, enhanced opportunities for production and employment, and better practices in water catchment protection and environmental conservation. The Project aims at reaching a target group of approximately 900,000 people (the estimated population of Hargeisa at Project inception).
The specific objectives of the present Project closely match with the Immediate Measures and Short-term Actions of the Hargeisa Water Masterplan[1], which have been identified as the short-term interventions that are urgently required to a) safeguard and augment the existing water supply, and b) to establish the basic preconditions for HWA reorganization and its transition to an efficient public-private partnership. In accordance, the specific objectives of the proposed intervention are to:
i. Secure supply from Ged Deeble wellfield for the long term, through replacement of the existing rising mains supplying water from the wellfield to the Chinese Reservoir in Hargeisa city;
ii. Expand and extend the Hargeisa urban water supply system through the rehabilitation and expansion of the Ged Deeble wellfield, and the initial development of the Hora Hadley wellfield, and
iii. Build capacity at the Hargeisa Water Agency, concentrating on planning, management and delivery of capital works projects.
The overall and specific objectives adopted in the present proposal are based on the Outline Scope of Work for the Project, prepared as a guidance note by the European Commission in January 2012. The overall objective and the first specific objective are identical to the ones mentioned in the guideline document. The second specific objective has been amended and prioritized towards the expansion of Ged Deeble and the development of the Hora Haadley wellfield, in line with the confirmed priorities by local institutional stakeholders, and the available budget.
As requested, the revised project scope focuses largely on infrastructural developments: consequently, the initial capacity building targets envisaged by the guideline document have been reduced in scope, and are now limited to developing capacities at HWA in the area of planning, management and implementation of infrastructure projects.
While the prioritization of activities was necessitated by budget limitations, it is felt that the Project should bear in mind some of the original objectives, related to Lot 3 of the Prioritized Construction works towards the Masterplan's Immediate Measures and Short-term Actions. While these objectives cannot be included due to current budget limitations, they should, together with Lot 6 and components of Lot 1 that cannot be covered by the present Project, be the target of ongoing fund-raising efforts by the main stakeholders of the Project (EU, UN-Habitat, and local counterparts). The envisaged additional objectives, which the Project will pursue through active resource mobilization efforts, are:
ii.b Expand the Hargeisa water supply system by completing the rehabilitation and expansion of the Ged Deeble wellfield, and the equipment and connection of the Hora Haadley wellfield
iii.b Build capacity at the Hargeisa Water Agency, in two additional principal areas of the Agency's core duties: (ii) asset management, and (iii) addressing unaccounted water losses and supporting efforts to enhance billing and revenue efficiency.
iv. Augment and extend the Hargeisa water supply system through expansion and optimisation of the urban distribution network placing a priority on vulnerable households (subject to funding availability)
[1] Prepared by Africa 70 (2007), under EU and Italian Cooperation co-funded Project “Rehabilitation and Improvement of the Hargeisa Water Supply System” (Contract No.: SO/0030/IT-COF/02)
