Djibouti City: Djibouti's government said it plans to build a 20-megawatt wind farm and a desalination plant within the next two years in a 20 billion-Djiboutian-franc (Dh415 million) project that will be financed by the European Union.
The power plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2013 and will power the water facility that is scheduled to be commissioned in 2014, Almis Mohammad Abdullah, head of external financing in the Economy, Finance, Industry and Planning Ministry, said after talks with an EU delegation on Wednesday in Djibouti City, the capital.
Reducing poverty
The desalination plant will produce 45,000 cubic metres of water per day, compared with the 36,000 cubic metres currently available.
The facilities will help the Horn of Africa country make progress toward United Nations poverty and hunger-reduction targets known as the Millennium Development Goals, Abdullah said.
Djibouti's sustainable water resources are estimated at about 50 cubic metres per capita per year, compared with an average of 1,000 cubic metres in the "water-stressed" Middle East and North Africa region, according to the UN Development Programme.
