Water and sanitation services in Boucle du Mouhoun, Hauts-Bassins and Sud-Ouest

Project description

Title: Burkina Faso – Programme Eau potable et Assainissement (PEA)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Burkina Faso
Lead executing agency: Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Ressources Hydrauliques, de l’Assainissement et de la Sécurité Alimentaire
Overall term: 2016 to 2018

Context

Burkina Faso has made significant advances in the area of water and sanitation services. The challenges that persist include large disparities in terms of access to quality services between cities on the one hand, and peri-urban and rural areas on the other.

Ninety per cent of urban residents have access to drinking water within 500 metres of their homes. However, over a third of the women living in rural areas are at times forced to walk several kilometres in order to reach sources of drinking water. Eight out of ten people residing in villages do not have a toilet at home and must relieve themselves in the open, posing serious risk to public health. Such inadequate hygienic practices lead to numerous illnesses. Children under the age of five often die of diarrhoeal diseases through the consumption of food or drink contaminated with faecal matter.

A lack of good governance and management greatly impede developments in the water and sanitation sector. In particular, there is an absence of systems and coherent strategies targeted at the widespread expansion of services with a broad impact.

The semi-public National Office of Water and Sanitation (ONEA), which is responsible for expanding and maintaining urban drinking and wastewater services, has to implement cost-cutting measures in order to balance its finances beyond 2017. Moreover, private utility companies are limited in their ability to provide services to the especially poor population populace. Particularly within informal urban quarters and large villages, the year-round provision of such services cannot be guaranteed.

The responsible municipal authorities do not possess the technical or organisational competences needed to adequately carry out their tasks. Additionally, transfers of funds to municipalities to promote measures for water and sanitation services as part of the decentralisation process are not meeting the demand. Regional and local government departments remain too weak to fulfil their leadership roles in supporting the municipalities.

Objective

Key stakeholders in the drinking water supply and sanitation sectors provide higher-quality services that are more efficient and more transparent.

Approach

This project for water and sanitation services enhances the capabilities and performance of key stakeholders at various levels.

The consulting firm AHT, contracted by the project, supports the ministry in charge of water and sanitation and ONEA through special services for monitoring and evaluation.

The ministry is supported to improve sector dialogue and strengthen its system of monitoring and evaluation both on central and provincial and communal levels, thereby achieving more efficient operations. The conditions for transferring competences to the municipalities are being improved in order to achieve a broad impact.

A new national internet database on water and sanitation services for the urban setting will enhance transparency and accountability by providing up-to-date information about the customers served, the time required, the water quality, the frequency of breakdowns and the like.

The programme supports the semi-public drinking and wastewater utility ONEA in reducing its operating costs, expanding services in informal urban settlements and improving the management of public wastewater services. Assistance for ONEA is provided in cooperation with the German enterprise Hamburg Wasser.

The national policy for decentralisation is being promoted in eight pilot communities. Here, water supply and wastewater and faeces disposal plans are being developed with the communities and the technical and commercial know-how necessary for carrying out operations and maintenance is being transferred to the partners.

The programme also provides support for the CEMEAU training centre, which conducts professional training in the area of water management. Professionalising private operators and creating accountability towards users in cooperation with civil society are the key elements that serve to improve the quality of service.

This programme is able to build on the results of proceeding projects implemented between 2006 and 2015. Management within this sector has already seen significant improvement. In cooperation with three German enterprises, water losses in urban and peri-urban settlement areas have also been reduced by more than 2 million cubic metres in the last three years: that amounts to CO2 reductions totalling 2,000 tonnes and additional drinking water services for some 50,000 people.