African Water Facility plans $500m urban sanitation fund

The African Water Facility seeks to tap private investors to help create a $500-million urban-sanitation fund as it rolls out an expansion plan that includes beginning to lend to projects. The facility, a unit of the African Development Bank, was created in 2004 in response to an increasing need for water and sanitation projects across the continent, said Mtchera Chirwa, the facility’s coordinator. To date, it has operated as solely a provider of grants but will now provide debt in some cases as donor funding dries up.