JICA and UNICEF signed the funding agreement under the auspices of MINEE on March 31.

The government of Japan, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has agreed to donate 374 million Japanese yens (about FCFA 1.745 billion) for the construction of 132 new boreholes for the supply of potable water to households in the Diamare and Mayo Kani Subdivisions of the Far North Region of Cameroon. Besides developing the boreholes, the executing agency, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), will also develop soft activities to ensure key hygiene practices.

JICA Country Resident Representative, Yabe Yujiro, and the UNICEF Resident Representative to Cameroon, Felicite Tchibindat, signed the agreements in Yaounde on March 31 in the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy (MINEE) under the chairmanship of the Secretary General of the ministry, Manaouda Malachie and in the presence of Japan's Ambassador to Cameroon, Tsutomi Arai. The objective is to improve access to drinking water and hygiene in 13 municipalities of the subdivision. The choice of the beneficiary, officials said, is based on the fact that about 72 per cent of its inhabitants lack access to safe water. "We intend to build synergies and take advantage of the experience of UNICEF in the area," JICA Resident Representative said.

Felicite Tchibindat noted that with the experience of UNICEF in the domain of potable water supply, all will be done to live up to expectation. "We have already been working in the Far North in the supply of drinking water. So, we will just be accelerating. It is important knowing that the national figure is 69 per cent having access to potable water and that in the Far North; it is only 45 per cent. The one year framework is short but we will do our utmost best to be able to achieve that. We work through national companies that have these expertise and we will be coordinating and making sure that the quality is there," she said.

While Ambassador Tsutomi Arai pledged his country's determination to stay by Cameroon in its development efforts, water supply being one, Manaouda Malachie on his part praised the UNICEF, JICA synergy promising government's determination to judiciously use the infrastructure to enable better access to potable water by the population for a healthy living.