newly established Water Development Commission has procured 53 Toyota Land Cruiser double-cabin pickup trucks to distribute to the regional states for 1.6 million dollars.

The pickups, which will be allotted to 22 cities in the regional states, were procured from the Motor & Engineering Company of Ethiopia Limited S.C. (MOENCO), which secured the deal after winning a bid.

Of the cities that will receive the trucks, six of them are located in Oromia, four in Amhara, three in Southern Nations, Nationalities, & People's Region and two in Tigray and Somali each. Cities in Afar, Benishangul, Gambella, Harari and Dire Dawa also received trucks.

The vehicles will be used for staff transportation and related services, according to Beide Melak, communications director at the Commission, which was established in December 2018 to ensure the supply of potable water, sanitation and hygiene.

The vehicles are procured under the Second Ethiopia Urban Water Supply & Sanitation Project, a six-year project that was launched with a 505-million-dollar loan from the World Bank. With the objective of improving operational efficiency and increasing access to water and sanitation services, the project was launched in August 2017.

The project has three components - sanitation and water supply service improvements in Addis Abeba; sanitation and water supply service improvements in secondary cities; and project management and institutional strengthening. For the three components, the World Bank committed 260 million dollars, 241 million dollars and four million dollars, respectively.

The project intends to provide 623,000 urbanites with access to improved water sources with the aim of managing the waste of 2.7 million urban residents. As of May 2019, 150,822 people in the 23 cities received access to improved water, and the waste of 357,500 urbanites was successfully managed, according to the World Bank.

“The criteria to distribute these vehicles is the number of project sites or beneficiary cities in each regional state,” said Beide.

The Addis Abeba Water & Sewerage Authority is also on its way to importing vehicles as part of the Second Ethiopia Urban Water Supply & Sanitation Project, according to Seyum Tola, water and sanitation infrastructure manager at the Authority.

“We've signed an agreement with MOENCO to procure 22 pickups," Seyum told Fortune.