THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC’S INFRASTRUCTURE: A CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE

**Figure 9. Urban versus rural access to water supply and sanitation, 2006**

<!-- Start of picture text --> a. Water supply b. Sanitation<br>100 100<br>90 90<br>80 80<br>70 70<br>60 60<br>50 50<br>40 40<br>30 30<br>20 20<br>10 10<br>0 0<br>Piped Stand Posts/ Wells and Surface Water Flush toilets Latrines Open Defecation<br>Shared Boreholes<br>Urban Rural Urban Rural<br>% population % population<br><!-- End of picture text --> _Source:_ AICD water supply and sanitation utilities database (http://www.infrastructureafrica.org/aicd/tools/data). Access figures calculated by the AICD using data from the 2006 Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys published by the JMP in March 2010. ß Availability of utility water in urban areas is extremely low relative to subsistence benchmarks, partly due to deficiencies in water treatment infrastructure. Domestic water consumption is on average 6.5 liters per capita per day, an insufficient amount to satisfy absolute subsistence at 25 liters per capita per day and only one-fifth of the average consumption of other fragile, rich countries (table 7). Whereas in Bangui the consumption is around 10 liters per day, in the other seven urban centers served by SODECA the daily consumption is limited to 5 liters. It is estimated that only 21 percent and 4 percent of the population living in Bangui and the other seven urban centers, respectively, consume the levels required to satisfy basic needs (World Bank 2010g). In view of the insufficient supply of water, there is an urgent need to secure access to chemicals and power for treatment (factors that have contributed to water shortages in the past), as well as to expand the existing treatment capacity, which is inadequate. During the conflict, prices of chemicals for water treatment went up following scarcity. In December 2004 Bangui suffered a total cut of its supply for several days following the delay of an order for chemicals needed to treat raw water. Water supply in the capital depends heavily on expensive electricity produced by ENERCA—itself in a difficult situation—so an energy blackout could stop the supply of drinking water in Bangui in six hours (COWI 2007). A majority of the urban centers served by SODECA have experienced pipe breaks in the water network, lasting a few weeks to several months (World Bank 2010g).

The CAR’s provision of utility water is critically affected by SODECA’s inefficiencies. It is particularly striking that the utility is losing half the treated water in the network when there is such a shortage of treated water to distribute. Distributional losses are not only more than twice as high as those of a well-performing utility, but also among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite an important improvement in collection ratios, SODECA has recovered only 86 percent of the total billing in 2009, which does not compare favorably with utilities in fragile states. At 62 connections per employee, labor productivity is less than half the average productivity of a utility in fragile states and below the benchmark of 200 connections per employee calculated for a well-run utility in Africa. With an average cost-recovery ratio of 43, revenues are not enough to cover total costs. The relatively low average 22