Access to water, a priority in Burkina Faso

"As an old hand in water issues, I provide all my field qualifications in Burkina Faso so that the boreholes are drilled in the best possible conditions."

Jean-Yves Gaubert

Since 2005, Burkina 35 has been working on contributing to the development of Vowogodo, a group of 11 isolated villages of the commune of Pibaoré in Burkina Faso (130 km northeast of Ouagadougou).These villages have no water facilities, and most of them no wells nearby, so that the population are forced to range far and wide to seek the turbid and polluted water of the backwaters.Given the climatic conditions and the extreme poverty, this makes the lives of 14,500 inhabitants even more vulnerable.

The population and the local authorities have therefore picked water as a priority, both for their consumption and for the animals, with the added possibility of creating market garden plots.Two boreholes have already been drilled thanks to help from Burkina 35, and the nonprofit recently set a target of another 4 boreholes equipped with India or Volanta hand pumps.

The local population involved in development

Operations are supervised locally by Association pour Le Développement et La Solidarité Relwendé de Vowogodo(ADSRV), which is tied to Burkina 35 by a partnership agreement.This nonprofit consists of members (men and women) from the 11 villages, and communicates directly with the population.ADSRV is involved in raising funds among the population and in setting up a pump management committee, with which ADSRV designates the point man for pump maintenance.ADSRV also sends regular reports to Burkina 35, and, backed by missions on the spot, this enables the French nonprofit to check the progress of the projects, and also, alongside the population, to identify their needs and to counsel them in seeking solutions.

The Veolia Foundation has been asked to contribute to the construction of the boreholes.