(Business in Cameroon) – Starting September 2024, Cameroon Water Utilities (Camwater) will launch a significant network expansion program. This initiative will target Yaoundé and nearby towns like Batschenga and Obala. The announcement came on August 20, 2024, during a ceremony in Batschenga, where Minister of Water and Energy Gaston Eloundou Essomba spoke about the upcoming projects.
Minister Essomba was present to inaugurate facilities under the Yaoundé and Surrounding Areas Drinking Water Supply Project, known as Paepys. This project aims to supply the capital and its surrounding regions with an additional 300,000 cubic meters of water daily, sourced from the Sanaga River.
“The President of the Republic, recognizing the urgent need to extend access to this newly available resource, has approved a special grant of CFA10 billion to Camwater,” Minister Essomba announced. This funding will allow Camwater to carry out emergency work on the water distribution network starting in September 2024. The plan includes a major expansion campaign, which will connect 200,000 new households in Yaoundé, Obala, and Batschenga by the end of 2025. The project will also involve constructing about 60 kilometers of pipelines, aiming to serve at least one million residents in these areas with clean water.
The minister mentioned that a more comprehensive reconfiguration of Yaoundé’s water network is expected to start in 2025. Without this upgrade, residents will not fully benefit from the Paepys infrastructure, which cost an estimated CFA399 billion. The upcoming project will include new pumping stations, storage reservoirs, and extended secondary and tertiary networks, along with another 100,000 new household connections. The minister added that securing the necessary funding for this extensive project is still underway.
It is worth noting that back in September 2022, the Cameroonian government sought a $35.16 million (over CFA23 billion) loan from Eximbank India to partially fund this extensive project. According to a letter from the Minister of Economy, Alamine Ousmane Mey, the funding will support the network’s extension from the Sanaga River, adding 348 kilometers of pipelines and enabling 29,248 new private connections. On June 14, 2022, a commercial contract worth $41.3 million (CFA27.12 billion) was signed with the Indian company WPIL Limited to move this effort forward.
