ON Tuesday 18 December 2018, the Office National de l'Electricité et de l'Eau Potable (ONEE) and the Belgian Development Agency (Enabel) organised a national seminar to capitalise on the Support Programme for the National Sanitation Programme (APNA).

The opening of the seminar was chaired by Mr Abderrahim EL HAFIDI, Director General of ONEE and His Excellency Marc TRENTESEAU Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium to Morocco. This event was attended by representatives of the ministerial departments, the rural municipalities concerned by the project, donors and several organizations operating in the water and sanitation sector at the national and international levels. As a major player in the National Sanitation Programme (PNA), ONEE is strongly committed to the implementation of an ambitious liquid sanitation programme in partnership with the Ministry of the Interior, the State Secretariat to the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development, and the Ministry of the Economy and Finance.

To support the implementation of sanitation projects and as part of Phase I of European co-financing, an PNA support programme (APNA) was set up in 2013 by ONEE and its partners. This innovative programme includes the implementation, for the first time in Morocco, of an integrated communication and awareness-raising approach to support the implementation of sanitation projects in order to ensure the appropriation of these projects by the population and their sustainability.

The implementation of this communication program has led to an acceleration in the implementation of sanitation projects and consequently in the achievement of the PNA's objectives. Thus, the workshop provided an opportunity to report on progress and significant experiences and to exchange views on important aspects of the APNA programme implementation at the technical, financial and communication levels.