Clean Water for Rural Village in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso is cited as the 3rd poorest country in the world. Women walk an average of 6km daily carrying 40 pounds of water to their families. Burkina Faso has increasing amounts of desertification from the Sahara
desert to the north. Infant mortality is 20 percent (1 in 5 babies die before they reach age 5) and average life span is 50 years old. The situation is particularly difficult for women: maternal mortality is high, women are given away as brides, 73% are subject to genital mutilation, and they are treated as second class citizens. Clean water is a rare commodity leading to high incidence of preventable disease and death. School attendance at the local school is low and students complain of hunger which prevents them from learning well. The village garden project addresses this issue in particular. Burkina has 3-month rainy season when rain is often so heavy it is detrimental to crops. Irrigation will make the 9-month dry season productive for farmers and also mitigate the effects of floods and drought.

Current status

This is the first phase of a multi-year project to co-develop with the village of Tantiaka a set of best practices for achieving the UN's Millennium Development Goals which can be replicated in other villages throughout
Burkina Faso. Over the past 4 years, BARKA has developed a relationship of trust and partnership with the village. The villagers are invested in helping this project succeed. BARKA has called several village meetings to discuss what work is needed and it was the villagers who determined that the first need was clean water and education for the children. BARKA has created numerous partnerships in areas of healthcare, education, water/sanitation/hygiene, agriculture, and women's empowerment. Funds for the drilling of the well have been secured through a Burkina Faso private company. Funds to lay the initial groundwork which is now complete was secured by US school children through service-learning projects such as Walks for Water and other initiatives which raised awareness about water scarcity in Burkina Faso and funds for this project. BARKA is also working with local Burkina Faso government officials on both the national and local levels to ensure proper protocols of implementation. This project is also in coordination with UN agencies such as DPI NGO, UNIC, UNICEF and UN Water.

BARKA takes a holistic approach toward sustainable development. This water project will positively impact women by reducing the amount of time spent each day walking for and carrying water. This will enable women to use their time more productively and concentrate on small businesses to generate needed income. BARKA is already working with a local well driller to drill a borehole well according to Burkina Faso's national standards set out by the Ministry of Water. Accessibility to clean water also makes it possible for girls to attend school because the need to help their mothers with the chores of carrying water are no longer necessary. Creating gender-specific sanitation facilities in the school has also been shown to stimulate school attendance by girls by providing greater privacy and dignity. Irrigation will enable local smallholder farmers to plant a greater diversity of crops, combat malnutrition and eradicate the "hunger season" which occurs annually before new crops are ready to be harvested. A village garden will be established and tended by students of the local school, This will teach them new farming technologies and techniques of sustainable agriculture as well as providing food for a much-needed school lunch program. Tantiaka has no sanitation facilities in the village. Digging gender-specific pit latrines will help reduce disease and give villagers new information about waste management and hygiene. Teaching UNICEF's WASH (water/sanitation/ hygiene) program in the local school will further emphasize basic hygiene education for children and their families. The reforestation project will focus on Moringa trees, a multi-purpose tree known to fight malnutrition.

Tantiaka, the small village in which BARKA is working has never improved sanitation facilities or access to education about basic hygiene. Clean water is a rare commodity. This project stands to empower 500 villagers through education and access to clean water, the basic building block of prosperity. Irrigation will enable smallholder farmers to plant new crops and fight hunger through year-round, drought-resistant farming. Moringa trees will help prevent malnutrition. Improved sanitation will fight disease.

Goals

• 1 new drilled borehole well
• 1 broken well fixed (capping and installing rope pump)
• Irrigation established for first time in village history
• Improved sanitation for first time in village history
• Hygiene education for youth and village

The BARKA Foundation has an ongoing relationship with this village. This is the first phase of a project expected to take 3-5 years to complete. Therefore we will have the ability to monitor progress, conduct studies, make necessary adjustments, and ensure the sustainability and proper handoff of our work. The ultimate goal of this project is to create empowerment. To that end, BARKA is already working with a group of
women to form a village association that will be recognized by the government and eligible for project funding. For the creation of the well and sanitation facilities, a local steering committee comprised of women
and elders will be formed. Part of their responsibility will be to determine the investment of villagers in all aspects of this project as well as to figure out a feasible form of micro-payments which will be used for future repairs and maintenance. The rope pump and treadle pumps used for irrigation will be locally sourced by an engineer who lives near the village. This engineer was introduced to BARKA through Winrock International, a development agency which has contracted rope pumps and treadle pumps from this engineer successfully in the recent past. The farmers will be trained on use and maintenance of the irrigation equipment. This will develop into training on optimized land use management. Women will be given training on proper use and maintenance of the well and the rope pump. In this way, villagers will take full ownership of all aspects of the project. Hygiene education and improved sanitation will help reduce disease and create
sustainable health improvements, especially regarding child mortality. nutrient-dense leaves. Oil from Moringa's seeds is edible and also used in cosmetics and as a biofuel. Seed husks are a proven flocculent able to naturally purify water. Its bark is used as a traditional medicine and frequently sold at pharmacies. It is indigenous to Burkina Faso, grows in poor soil with little water and is known as the miracle tree. Tantiaka is the first village in the area with which BARKA is working. Plans include to reach out to surrounding villages to inform them of this project and to spread its educational awareness.