Water supply and sanitation in Mozambique is characterized by low levels of access to at least basic water sources (estimated to be 47% in 2015), low levels of access to at least basic sanitation (estimated to be 24% in 2015) and mostly poor service quality. In 2007 the government has defined a strategy for water supply and sanitation in rural areas, where 62% of the population lives. In urban areas, water is supplied by informal small-scale providers and by formal providers. Beginning in 1998, Mozambique has reformed the formal part of the urban water supply sector through the creation of an independent regulatory agency called CRA, an asset-holding company called FIPAG and a public-private partnership (PPP) with a company called Aguas de Moçambique. The PPP covered those areas of the capital and of four other cities that had access to formal water supply systems. However, the PPP ended when the management contracts for four cities expired in 2008 and when the foreign partner of the company that served the capital under a lease contract withdrew in 2010, claiming heavy losses. While urban water supply has received considerable policy attention, the government has no strategy for urban sanitation yet. External donors finance about 85% of all public investments in the sector. The main donors in the water sector are the World Bank, the African Development Bank, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
Access
Only about 47% of the Mozambican population has access to an at least basic water source, and only 24% has access to at least basic sanitation. Consequences on living conditions are multiple, ranging from poor health to lower productivity due to the time needed to fetch water. Figures on access are controversial. For example, the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation estimates access to an at least basic source of water supply at 79% in urban areas and 32% in rural areas as of 2015. However, the Ministry of Public Works uses the water access figures of 38% in urban areas and 40% in rural areas. The numbers for rural access are derived from the number of boreholes and an estimated average number of households using a borehole.
Source: Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation of WHO and UNICEF There are also conflicting figures about what are the target figures to meet the MDGs for water and sanitation by 2015. According to a World Bank document it means urban access to water increasing to 78% and rural access increasing to 56%. However, according to a MDG status report it means increasing access to 70% in both urban and rural areas.
Service quality There are few published reliable data on water and sanitation service quality in Mozambique. Many water systems provide water intermittently. However, four cities – Beira, Pemba, Quelimane and Nampula – have achieved continuous or almost continuous water supply as a result of private sector participation, increasing the hours of water supply per day from 9 hours (Beira and Quelimane) and 17 hours (Nampula and Pemba) in 2002 to 22–24 hours in 2007. Water supply in Maputo remains intermittent, increasing only slightly from 12 to 14 hours.
History
National Water Policy of 1995 and institutional reforms In 1995, Mozambique approved a National Water Policy that emphasizes community participation and, for urban water supply, private sector participation. In 1998 the World Bank approved its First National Water Development Project in support of the National Water Policy. Other donors provided co-financing for the project. In 1998 two key institutions were created to implement the National Water Policy: The regulatory agency CRA and the Asset Holding Company FIPAG. The government also approved a water tariff policy aiming at cost recovery.
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