On Thursday, March 07, 2018, the Société Nationale des Eaux du Benin – SONEB (National Water Utility of Benin) and its Technical and Financial Partners (PTFs) validated during a working session in Cotonou, the general planning of Cotonou Water supply (WS) system strengthening project, phase III.

Following the success of the Cotonou WS project Phase 2 which was completed in 2015, SONEB, with the support of the Government of Benin and the TFPs, intends to continue improving the drinking water supply in the Benin’s economic capital. Thus, phase 3 of the Cotonou WS project was born, with a total cost of FCFA 23.5 billion, of which FCFA 19.7 billion (84%) in the form of EIB loan and FCFA 3.8 billion (16%) as EU grant. In the long term, the project will increase SONEB's production and storage capacity, extend and strengthen the primary, secondary and tertiary distribution networks over several kilometers, as well as serve an additional population of around 350,000 inhabitants in Cotonou and in the localities of Godomey, Ekpe and Aglangandan.

On Thursday, March 7, 2018, at the SONEB Head Office in Cotonou, a major work session qualified as project launching meeting, between the SONEB officials and the PTFs involved in the drinking water sector, made it possible to validate the general planning of the project implementation, to agree on management arrangements and to discuss various other concerns related to the progress of future work. The representatives of the European Investment Bank (EIB), KFW, the Delegation of the European Union (EU) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) were in attendance. SONEB Acting Managing Director, Mr Lucien AVOHOUEME, seized the moment to thank the PTFs of SONEB for their support.