Due to delays in procurement, a $145.8 million water project in Rwanda has been placed under careful observation by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

With the AfDB classifying the Rwanda Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation project as a “potentially problematic project,” the Pan-African lender now faces the possibility of withdrawing from the project, which received a $122.9 million loan from the organization.

Just 15.5% of the loan amount has been disbursed by the bank to the implementing agency, the Water and Sanitation Corporation of Rwanda, so far, and its withdrawal from the project could put the organization in danger of financial difficulties and jeopardize its success.

“The main challenge under this programme is the long delays in the preparation of feasibility and design studies by the consultants and contract management,” the bank noted in an implementation progress report for the project published on June 17.

“The programme is red flagged because of slow procurement and low disbursement,” it added.

With precisely two years remaining before the loan facility’s deadline, the progress report indicates that none of the project’s five major components have been completed to date, raising concerns about the project’s ability to produce the intended results.

According to the bank, the project’s main problems are “substantial delays in the procurement process, especially in the lead time for the preparation and submission of bid evaluation reports,” and “slow implementation, especially at feasibility and design phase.”

“Fast-track implementation of the activities and follow up the implementation of the agreed actions to have a detailed schedule for the completion of all ongoing studies and works,” the lender said.

At least 5.4 million Rwandans are anticipated to have access to clean water after the water project is finished, more than twice as many as did so in 2018, the year the project began.

It has only succeeded in adding 451,000 connections thus far, achieving only 15.8% of the intended result. The initiative was also intended to reduce the corporation’s non-revenue water supply from 35% to 25%, but it has instead managed to raise it to 42%, further deviating from the goal.

Six years after the project’s inception, hardly any work has been made on the sewerage portion. Against a target population of 294,480, the number of persons in Kigali covered by the central sewage system remains zero. The lack of acquisition of solid waste landfills and faecal treatment plant has also benefited no one.

The bank requests that the enforcement agency “follow up the implementation of agreed actions to overcome encountered challenges and be reported in every quarterly progress report” in order to facilitate the timely achievement of the targeted goals.

The AfDB issued the warning at the same time that it announced its decision to leave a $65 million waste power plant in Nairobi because of comparable delays in obtaining essential services.