Drinking water for war refugees in Bamako

Improving access to water and sanitation has been one of the major challenges of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). It remains a priority in Mali, where the conflict has caused a massive flow of refugees from the northern regions to the capital, further exacerbating the water supply situation. When the Mali Minister for Water and Energy visited France in spring 2013, he stressed the importance of the issue of access to water in a number of outlying districts of Bamako that are not at all or only poorly served by the network of Somagep (Société malienne de gestion de l'eau potable). A water treatment plant is under construction (Kabala project), but will not be operational for several years.

In this context, the foundation signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mali Ministry for Energy and Water setting up support for the DNH (Direction Nationale de l'hydraulique - National Water Directorate). It includes consultancy and expertise in drawing up drinking water supply projects, training the staff and personnel of DNH for better technical control, and the search for innovative financing from lenders.

A major project for a major cause

This support is especially concerned with a project recognized as a priority for access to water in the suburbs of Bamako: the rehabilitation of a borehole in the BanconiDianguinebougou district that suffers a chronic drinking water deficit. Equipped today with a single hand pump, it has to be converted to an AES (adduction d'eau sommaire - basic water supply) with the installation of an electric pump, the construction of a reservoir to store the water, and a network of seven standpipes to distribute it. The project includes the construction of the AES and its commissioning, as well as the training of the standpipe managers.

A foundation field trip in mid-2013 and technical exchanges with DNH helped validate the project, its technical decisions and its financial package. Its implementation is supervised by EDS (Énergie, Eau et Environnement du Sahel), a Mali nonprofit leading water access and environmental conservation projects in Mali and in the Sahel countries. Operations are entrusted to the local firm Seeba, under the supervision of EDS and the foundation. This arrangement has already been employed successfully to rehabilitate the AES of SikoroFarada in 2013.