Germany and Zambia are strengthening their relations through new financing agreements totalling 750 million Zambian kwachas, or 35.8 million euros.
The grants awarded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) are intended to support three development projects in the East African country.
The first agreement concerns the water sector through the Chipata Drinking Water Supply Project in the Eastern Province, which already received €7 million in funding from the German Development Agency (KfW) a few years ago.
The project involves modernising and extending the existing water supply and sanitation systems in all the district capitals of Eastern Province and in its provincial capital Chipata.
The BMZ grant is also earmarked for water resource management and sanitation in medium-sized towns. These initiatives aim to improve access to water in Zambia.
In 2018, the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) of the African Development Bank (AfDB) estimated that the rate of access to drinking water and basic sanitation was 61%. This means 42% in rural areas and 84% in urban areas for water, and 19% in rural areas and 36% in urban areas for sanitation.
Another key sector covered by the subsidy agreements between Germany and Zambia is renewable energy. Berlin is funding the second phase of the Get FiT Zambia programme, which aims to develop renewable energies with the support of the private sector, in particular independent power producers (IPPs).
As part of this programme, Lusaka expects to purchase 200 MW of renewable energy capacity, divided into a 100 MW solar photovoltaic cycle and a 100 MW cycle of small hydroelectric power stations.
However, since the announcement of the results of the first calls for tenders in 2019, there has been little progress on the programme. For the record, the Zambian authorities selected Italy’s Building Energy and South Africa’s Pele Energy to build two 20 MW solar power plants in Bulemu East and West, in central Zambia.
The UK company Globeleq and South Africa’s Aurora Power Solutions had bid to build the Aurora Sola 1 and 2 solar power plants, with a combined capacity of 40 MW.
The Garneton Nouth and South Solar plants (20 MW) planned for central Zambia were awarded to the French company InnoVent and Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC), a Zambian company. German funding will certainly help to unblock these renewable energy projects.