« I asked the government to urgently finalize procedures relating to the launch, from 2023, of the mega-project for the supply of drinking water to the city of Douala and its surroundings.», Declared Paul Biya during his speech to the nation on December 31, 2022. The exhortation of the Head of State was not implemented operationally on the date announced by the latter. For all response, the Minister of Water and Energy contented himself, in November 2023, before the Finance and Budget Committee of the National Assembly, with detailing the last obstacles to be removed so that the project can start in 2024. “Due in November 2023, the summary pre-project studies have already been validated and the detailed pre-project studies are in progress. For 2024, it is a question of completing the maturation with a view to starting work on the megaproject. did he declare.
Start in 2026
However, while we are at 2e quarter of the current year, it seems that this will not be the start of the mega water supply project for the city of Douala and its surroundings. At least, if we stick to the projections which appear in the Government’s Priority Investment Program for the period 2024-2026. In this document which brings together the government’s priority projects which will benefit from particular attention, particularly in terms of allocation of financial resources and monitoring of implementation, the latter has been placed in the list of investment projects priority to be launched from 2026. According to the same document, the end of the work is planned in 2029, for a total cost of 450 billion FCFA, under public project management. Which means that for this project, the State is renouncing a public-private partnership.
The reasons for the discrepancy
The reasons for this significant delay in the start of work remain a mystery, because requests for information addressed to the Ministry of Water and Energy have gone unheeded. However, in 2023, Blaise Moussa, general manager of Cameroon Water Utilities, the public company responsible for the production, distribution and marketing of drinking water in Cameroon, suggested that the start date of the megaproject of Drinking water supply to the city of Douala could be extended due to procrastination in choosing the financing best suited to the project, or even due to the consideration of possible conflicts of interest between stakeholders. Overall, to finance it, the State intends to go into debt. To do this, he would have opted for loans at concessional rates, which are financing granted on conditions much more advantageous than those of the market. “A minimum of 300 billion FCFA, or even 400 billion FCFA, would be needed for the work on the mega water supply project in the city of Douala. The condition set by the State is that the financing is at concessional rates, and that the State debt ceiling is not reached. Still, these are projects that must be validated by the National Debt Committee.did he declare.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) initialed in July 2023 by Cameroon Water Utilities (Camwater) and the Belgian companies Besix NV/SA and the Turkish company Ersa Construction certainly obeyed the aforementioned government prescription. If we stick to the report which was made at the end of the aforementioned signing ceremony, these new partners will invest 125 billion FCFA in the drinking water supply project for the city of Douala. Public-private partnership or loan? We’re still not sure. But in view of the data recorded in the government’s Priority Investment Program for the period 2024-2026 and the confidences made by the managing director of Camwater, the possibility of a loan seems the most plausible.
Consistency of the project
For the record, the water supply megaproject in the city of Douala consists of strengthening the drinking water supply in the city of Douala and its surroundings, through the additional production of 400,000 m3 per day of drinking water, from the Wouri River. Designed to absorb a daily deficit of around 500,000 m3Camwater is convinced that its implementation will make it possible to improve the quality of the drinking water supply service, as well as the supply, increase water sales turnover and encourage job creation.
