are belgium, the islamic development bank, kuwait, luxemburg, spain and the united states. external partners work increasingly together to finance joint programs instead of financing specific projects. an example is the rural water supply program pager initiated in 1995 that was supported by belgium, the european union, france, germany, japan, kuwait, luxemburg and the world bank. a more recent example is the support for the national sanitation program by the european union, france and germany. african development bank the african development bank (afdb) has financed nine drinking water projects in morocco since 1978. the total amount of its funding in the sector has been us$180 million until 2006, benefiting 20 moroccan towns, in particular tangiers. on-going projects, all executed by onep, include the ninth drinking water and sanitation project, appraised in 2006, which benefits rural populations in four provinces and foresees wastewater treatment in three towns (khouribga, oued zem and boujaâd) and the tenth drinking water supply project approved in 2008 which supports drinking water supply in khénifra, taounate, settat, marrakech and tamesna as well as neighbouring small towns. in 2003 the afdb provided a loan for a water sector adjustment program. in 2012 the afdb approved a us$157 million loan to finance a marrakech region water supply project together with afd (us$68.7 million), onee and the office chérifien des phosphates (ocp), each providing us$66.8 million. it will finance bulk water transmission from the al massira dam for drinking water, tourism and mining. the project is expected to be completed in 2017. european union the european union supports the sector through grants, as well as through loans from the european investment bank (eib). the eib has supported water supply and sanitation projects in six cities (marrakech, settat, meknes, agadir, oujda and fes), as well as a number of small towns. between 1997 and 2006 it provided 10 loans totaling euro 283m. in 2006 it approved another loan of euro 40m for sanitation in the sebou basin, a highly polluted river where fes and meknes are located. in 2002 the european union provided a euro 120m grant to support the first water sector adjustment program to morocco, which aimed at rationalizing water resources management. the program's specific objectives were to effectively implement the 1995 water framework law, to reduce the costs for the state budget and to increase the effectiveness of the sector institutions. france water supply and sanitation is a focal area of french development cooperation with morocco. in 2007 the french development agency (afd) supported projects with a value of euro 130m for urban and rural water supply and euro 145m for sanitation. geographically the projects are concentrated in the sebou river basin, in agadir and in nador. in nador french aid contributes through a loan approved in 2007 to clean up the highly polluted lagoon of nador, the largest lagoon in the mediterranean. the clean-up plan for the bay is inspired by similar experiences in france (contrats de baie) under which different public players work together for the common goal to clean up a coastal bay. germany germany has supported the moroccan water sector since the early 1980s and was among the first donors to support the moroccan government's efforts at expanding access to sanitation in small and medium-sized towns in the early 1990s. german aid projects are administered by kfw in charge of investment projects, gtz in charge of technical cooperation and inwent in charge of training. in 2009 the total volume of approved and on-going investment projects supported by kfw was euro 407m, all executed by onep in small and medium-sized towns and rural areas. gtz supports the ministry of energy, mining, water and environment and three basin agencies (tensift, souss-massa, and oum er-rbia) in improving the integrated and sustainable management of water resources. the euro 12m project was initiated in 2008 and is scheduled to be completed in 2017. islamic development bank in 2006 the islamic development bank provided two loans of dirham 270 million (about euro 27 million) for water supply. the projects are executed by onep. japan since 1994 jbic has provided loans of dirham 3.6 billion to onep. in 2008 jica granted a 13.6 billion yen (about euro 90 million) loan to morocco to finance rural water supply projects in the provinces chefchaouen, taounate et khénifra. the project will benefit 408 villages (douars) with 241,335 inhabitants and will be implemented until 2013. it is the most important loan provided by jica and its predecessor jbic to onep. spain the spanish government supports a number of water and sanitation projects in morocco. a euro 15m rural water and sanitation project implemented by onep in the provinces alhucemas, nador, taunat and tazaand was approved in 2006. in the field of water resources management it supported the basin agency for the loukkos river between 2003 and 2009, as well as the basin agency for the molouya river in 2006/07. united states usaid supported improved water resources management in the souss-masa basin between 1999 and 2005. world bank in 2009 the active portfolio of the world bank included a us$60 million loan for a rural water supply and sanitation project approved in 2005 (implemented by onep) and a us$7 million grant from the global partnership for output-based aid to increase urban access to water supply and sanitation (implemented by the ministry of interior). it also includes a us$100 million loan to support the national human development initiative approved in 2006, of which water supply and sanitation is an element. the world bank also provided budget support through a us$100 million to morocco through a water sector policy development loan approved in 2007. it has been engaged in the moroccan water and sanitation sector since 1972 with nine investment projects with a lending volume of more than us$500 million.