Ecuador will improve continuity, operational management and reliability of the drinking water system and boost wastewater treatment capacity, bringing direct benefits to more than 200,000 people and indirect benefits to Quito’s 2.6 million metropolitan district dwellers, with help from a US$87.1 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank.
The assistance to Empresa Pública Metropolitana de Agua Potable y Saneamiento (EPMAPS) water utility will also include US$40 million in cofinancing from FONPRODE –the Spanish government’s Fund for the Promotion of Development–, and US$93.9 million in local counterpart funding, taking the project’s total budget to US$221 million.
“Over its six-year life, the project will provide momentum to the goals of the Ecuadorean government’s national development plan Toda una Vida (An Entire Life),” IDB team leader Edgar Orellana said. “As part of this commitment, the health situation of the population as well as environmental conditions will be enhanced in the metropolitan district, a 4,183 km² area comprising the capital, Quito, and 33 rural localities.”
The bulk of the funds –93 percent– will go to expand and improve Quito’s drinking water systems, with the remainder helping upgrade and amplify the sewage and sanitation networks in the Quitumbe, Checa and La Merced municipalities. The program will also seek to more than double the number of endeavors with gender and climate change focus that are implemented in its area of influence, from the current 8 to a total of 18.
Planned works include: building a drinking water treatment plant and enhancing two others; building 16 km of drinking water primary and distribution networks; building 39 km of raw water transmission lines from their sources and natural reservoirs to the potabilization plants; improving 30 hydraulic sectors; and installing and putting into service 444 state-of-the-art flow meters for large consumers.
Other goals of the program include building 1.5 km of sewage networks in Quitumbe; 26 km of interceptors for wastewater collection and treatment in Checa and La Merced; and raising by 22 percent the hydroelectric generation capacity for EPMAPS’ self power supply, thereby contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The US$87.1 million loan from the Bank’s ordinary capital is for a 24-year term, with a 6.5-year grace period and a LIBOR-based interest rate, whereas the FONPRODE cofinancing is managed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).
