Water rich Angola on path to quench citizens' thirst

ISSUWSSSD Program aims to improve sector governance, strengthen institutional capacity and efficiency in the water and sanitation sector institutions at central and provincial level and improve access and service delivery.

Angola is a rich country in terms of water resources, with 77 river basins, 43 hydrological basins, and important upstream positions in several international basins. 

The state of water supply infrastructure in Angola was understandably poor following independence from Portugal and the extended civil war. As of 2001, only 27 percent of the total population and 42 % of the estimated urban population had access to improved drinking water sources. Between 2006 and 2015, national access to improved drinking water sources remained roughly static, at 49 percent of the population while access for urban population increased from 58% in 2006 to 75% in 2011 driven mainly by the expansion of stand posts. Access to sanitation increased from 29% to 60%, disaggregated at 87% for urban and 20% for rural from 1990 to 2012.

Water sectors reforms in the country were marked by the following key milestones:

• Enactment of the Water Law (2002) for mandating cost-recovery tariffs and professionalization of service delivery, and devolving the responsibility for service provision to provincial governments;
• Approval of Vision 2025 by the Government in 2008 that included the goal of universal access to water supply in urban areas by 2025;
• Formulation of the National Strategic Plan for Water (2003) highlighting the need to identify and quantify water uses, identify water resources, and establish a water balance; and
• Formulation and adoption of National Development Plan (2013-2017) and the Energy and Water Sector Action Plan (2013-2017) which identified as a key priority the strengthening of urban water supply, in particular in provincial capitals, with special emphasis on expansion of water systems.

 The legal framework related to water and sanitation aspect in Angola is defined by Water Law 6/02 and Law 9/95 for the Creation of Public Companies. The general principles for the management, planning, and use of water resources are set up in Law 6/02 promulgated in 2002. National Water Directorate (DNA) is a responsible agency for policy-making, management and governmental support to Water Resources Management (WRM) and Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) sub-sectors. WSS services are delivered by provincial governments with support and oversight of DNA. DNA is the responsible agency for planning and implementing infrastructure projects. 16 PWSUs, Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidricos (INRH - National Institute for Water Resources), and Instituto Regulador dos Serviços de Electricidade (Institute for Regulation of Electricity Services – IRSEA) have been created but these institutions lack enough capacity to fulfill their mandates.

The sixteen Provincial Water and Sanitation Utilities (PWSUs) were created between 2013 and 2016 as independent service providers with the aim of improving urban water supply. Out of the 18 provincial capitals, twelve have prepared water master plans to address infrastructure requirements and there is an on-going process to introduce performance-based management contracts in a number of these utilities. The African Development Bank (AfDB) approved a project in 2015 to finance capital investments in Sumbe and technical assistance for the established PWSUs in seven provinces in 2016. The years in which PWSUs created are 2013 at Benguela, Lobito, Cunene, Cuanza Norte, Bié, Malanje and Uíge, 2014 at Huambo and 2016 at Bengo, Cuanza Sul, Lunda Norte, Huila, Moxico, Cabinda, Namíbe and Lunda Sul.

Water Sector Institutional Development Project (WSIDP) I, approved in July 2008, was intended to be a seven-year project for rehabilitation of water supply assets, development of new networks and household connections, and capacity building of national and provincial level agencies involved in water supply, capital investment, and water resource management. In the area of water resource management, the Government of Angola formally created the INRH in 2010, with the support of WSIDP I. The project also supported the Government’s Vision 2025, which includes goals for universal access to water supply in urban areas, the 2013-2017 National Development Plan, and the 2013-2017 Energy and Water Sector Action Plan, which puts special emphasis on expansion of water systems.

Issues identified during the implementation of WSIDP I included:

• The utilities not being able to fulfill their mandates for service delivery, management, and regulation;
• Staffing issues posing particular challenges, with understaffing being a significant problem at the national level agencies, and overstaffing and skills mismatches at the PWSUs;
• The nascent nature of the PWSUs responsible for service provision, asset management and planning, efficiency, comprehensive financial management, and cost recovery is perhaps the most urgent institutional challenge for the sector;
• The utilities having no proper way to measure water treatment or sales and lack of reliable information in these areas preventing estimation of future financial performance at that time;
• Most cities not having billing system while in other few the collection ratio was only 60%; and
• None of the PWSUs being able to cover their operational costs resulting in operating deficits being covered by subsidies from the provincial governments.

Regime Econômico e Financeiro de Utilização Geral dos Recursos Hídricos (REFURGH - General Economic and Financial Framework for Water Resources – Presidential Decree 82/14), which established the right of INRH to charge for the use of water resources, suggested the PWSUs to strengthen their commercial and operating capacity, both ‘soft’, human-resource capacity and system capacity, such as investment in financial management systems and billing software, operational reporting systems, etc.

Water Sector Institutional Development Project II mainly focused on:

• Generally, supporting the strengthening of the institutional framework for water resources management, including continuing support and activities initiated under WSIDP I;
• Providing management and engineering support through goods and technical assistance to various agencies of MINEA to support project implementation and other investments in the water sector;
• Strengthening the institutional framework for the water and sanitation sector as well as to build capacities at the recipient agencies at the national and provincial levels;
• Technical Assistance to IRSEA for Water and Sanitation Regulation;
• Assisting IRSEA in defining a sound regulatory framework, as well as building its capacity to fulfill its responsibilities as the water and sanitation regulator;
• Designing and developing an information database for the water and wastewater sector within IRSEA, as an input into the improvement of the tracking of key performance indicators and of data available for policy and investment decision making; and
• In addition to on-the-job training to be provided by the Technical Assistance consultant, supporting the selected training to IRSEA’s staff in order to enhance their capacity to implement the regulatory framework.

Besides the above, other projects implemented are:

• Water Sector Capacity Building Support – Establishment of Vocational Training Centre funded by the European Commission
• Institutional Strengthening of the Energy and Water Resources Sectors in Angola funded by Norway
• Sector Policy Support – Sanitation, Support to Vocational training Centre funded by UNICEF
• Sumbe Water Supply, Sanitation and Institutional Development funded by African Development Bank

Presently, the Government of Angola (GoA) with assistance from the African Development Bank is implementing an Institutional Support for the Sustainability of Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Service Delivery (ISSUWSSSD) Program (2015-2021) with an aim to improve sector governance, strengthen institutional capacity and efficiency in the water and sanitation sector institutions at central and provincial level and improve access and service delivery.