27. May 2025
Author and photo credits: Valérie Zongo, Helvetas Burkina Faso
At the start of phase IV of the consortium in 2023, Helvetas Burkina through the Laafia III project, together with the technical services, carried out an assessment of access to water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH) in 9 health care facilities (HCF), 12 schools and 12 villages in the communes of Zam, Salogo, Kogho, Province of Ganzourgou in Burkina Faso using the consortium’s FACET tool, based on the JMP indicators (WHO/UNICEF). The findings were worrying, because although 86% of institutions (schools and HCF) provided basic drinking water services, in only one case did the water supply reach the target. In 66% of the institutions, water was not accessible at any time of the year because of recurrent breakdowns and the inability of the managers to ensure repairs within at least 72 hours. None of the institutions had a functional maintenance system.
In 2024, an analysis of the water quality in 6 schools, 4 HCF and 6 villages was carried out to identify, together with the stakeholders (schools, health centres, local authorities and communities), the priority water points and sites for work to rehabilitate broken water points and create new boreholes. The eligibility criteria were: 1) the quality of the borehole water had to comply with WHO standards; 2) confirmation that the water flow from the human-powered pumps was sufficient to be transformed into Solar Water Pumping Systems; 3) guarantees that autonomous mechanisms for sustainable management would be put in place by the communities.
In collaboration with the technical services for water and sanitation and the municipalities concerned, the project has carried out the following work: conversion of six handpumps into Solar Water Pumping Systems in three schools, one health care facility, and two villages; construction of a new borehole temporarily equipped with a handpump which will be solarized in one health care facility; and rehabilitation of three hand pumps in one health care facility, one school and one village.
A water point management committee of seven people has been set up in each HCF, school and village and trained in the maintenance and sustainable management of the facilities by the provincial water and sanitation department. Each institution and village has set up an endogenous fund-raising mechanism to ensure the maintenance of the facilities.
Thanks to these projects, 4,200 people in the areas concerned now have access to basic water services. This has helped to significantly reduce the amount of time for water fetching required by schoolchildren, people accompanying health care facility patients, and communities.
The availability of water has also enabled beneficiaries to develop other initiatives to promote environmental education and women’s empowerment. For example, three schools are now practising school gardening for educational purposes, and 31 women have benefited from plots of land and seeds for growing vegetables.
Before, students used to spend an enormous amount of time fetching drinking water from school. Now it’s just a turn of the tap and they fill up their jerry cans. As well as reducing the amount of time the pupils have to spend fetching water, the school sells the water back to the community, which means that the facility can be managed and resources made available for maintenance.
Christophe OUEDRAOGO, Headmaster of Bendogo School.