THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN THE PLANNING

AND DESIGN PHASES OF RURAL WATER SUPPLY DEVELOPMENT

PROJECTS IN THE KORO REGION OF MALI, WEST AFRICA

A Thesis

Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School

Of Cornell University

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Science

by

Brett Gleitsmann

May 2005

© 2005 Brett Gleitsmann

ABSTRACT

Permanent access to safe and sustainable water sources is a major

concern for much of rural and peri-urban sub-Saharan West Africa. In

response to this problem, many international, regional and local water supply

development organizations are currently working to improve the level of

access that the local populations have to safe and sustainable water sources.

The West Africa Water Initiative (WAWI) was launched in Ghana, Mali and

Niger in 2002 to promote broader partnerships between the various

organizations working in the water supply development sector in the region.

As part of this collaborative effort, the Cornell International Institute for Food,

Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD), one of the founding partners of WAWI,

has supported and funded the present study. The ultimate goal of this study is

to generate a useful knowledge base that can be accessed by WAWI partners

and other actors in the Malian water supply development sector to improve the

sustainability of rural water supply projects in the region. To this effect,

domestic water-use patterns, choice-of-technology preferences, sustainability

perceptions, regional pump conditions and general hygiene practices were

observed and recorded during a ten-month study in the Koro district of the

Mopti region in Mali.

This research has contributed insight into the complex nature of the rural

water supply situation in the Koro region of Mali. Choice-of-technology

preferences vary according to several factors including local perception of

water scarcity, individual water use requirements, and previous experience

with various technologies. Sustainability of various types of water supply

infrastructure is dependent upon the degree to which the technology

corresponds to the needs of the local community and the community’s ability

to maintain and repair it over time. Considering the poor state of the manual

pumps observed in the district of Koro, it is apparent that efforts need to be

made to ameliorate the situation. Learning from previous development

projects, the latest approaches address the problems of the limited availability

of spare parts, the absence of trained technicians at the local level and the

limited role of women in the pump management scheme. Dedicating more

time and resources to the maintenance and management aspects of rural

water supply development is a positive action and should help to improve

sustainability of newly installed water supply infrastructure. However, the

continued lack of community involvement in the decision-making phase of

water supply development projects, deeply entrenched patriarchal structures

that continue to constrain leadership and decision making participation of

women and minorities, principal stakeholders in water use, and the potentially

global inappropriateness of manual pumps as a sustainable long-term option

remain to be addressed.

iii

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Brett Gleitsmann was brought into the world by Karen Ann St. Julien,

with the help of Richard Paul Gleitsmann, Jr., at the Presbyterian Hospital in

Dallas, Texas at 7:39 a.m. on March 10, 1974. Twenty-three years later he

received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington. The

three years he spent in the Côte d’Ivoire while working as a Peace Corps

volunteer inspired him to continue his studies in International Water Resource

Management at Cornell University.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to wholeheartedly thank the chiefs of the three villages of

study, notably, Alaye Bamadio of Yadianga, Aly Djimdé of Ogodouroukoro and

Ali Niangaly of Benebourou, for their willingness to host and take care of a

stranger from America. The research itself would not have been possible

without the help of my designated hosts in the three villages: Bakary Bamadio

of Yadianga, Baye Djimdé and Antoine Sagara of Ogodouroukoro and

Atémélou Niangaly of Benebourou. And as for the day to day meals, water,

clean clothes and fresh milk, I would like to thank the mothers, sisters and

wives of my host families for all of their hospitality, hard work and support. For

their constant presence in Koro and their wonderful hospitality every time that I

came through, I would like to thank the Kassambara family of Koro II (Gogo,

Adema, Fanta, Aicha, Oumou and Ma). For their logistical support and

guidance, I would like to thank the staff of World Vision Mali, in particular

Jean-Baptiste Kamaté, Josué Sogoba, Pathé Ongoiba, and Samuel Diarra for

all of their support and assistance during my stay in Mali. I would like to

equally recognize and thank the staff of Winrock International, in particular

Niels Hanssens and Bara Kassambara, for their total commitment to my

project and for all of their guidance and assistance during my stay. For their

support from the very beginning of this research I would like to thank my

professors, Dr. Tammo Steenhuis and Dr. Margaret Kroma. Lastly, but most

importantly, the research itself would not have been possible without the

funding of the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and

Development (CIIFAD) and the direction and vision of Dr. Norman Uphoff.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Biographical Sketch iii

Acknowledgments iv

Table of Contents v

List of Figures vi

List of Tables vii

Chapter One: Introduction 1

Chapter Two: Project Setting 5

Chapter Three: Methods 8

Chapter Four: Results 10

Chapter Five: Discussion 33

Chapter Six: Conclusion 44

Appendix A: Pump Locations and Specifications 48

Appendix B: Water Quality Analyses 50

Bibliography 52

vi

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Region of Study 6

Figure 2. Average Domestic Water Use by Activity, 14 Dry and Rainy Seasons, 2004

Figure 3. Condition of Manual and Powered Pumps, 48 Counties of Koro and Bondo, June 2004

vii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Daily Per Capita Domestic Water Use 13 Table 2. Daily Water Withdrawn (Domestic Use) 15 Yadianga, February 2004 Table 3. Daily Water Withdrawn (Total) 15 Yadianga, February 2004 Table 4. Daily Well Water Withdrawn 18 Yadianga, February 2004 Table 5. Total Number of Manual Pumps In-Use for 26 the Counties of Koro and Bondo, June 2004 Table 6. Manual Pumps Meeting WHO Guidelines 27 (Flow Rate > 13 l / min), June 2004 Table 7. Water Jar Survey Results 31 Dry Season, 2004 Table 8. Manual Pump Comparisons 38 DRHE – Mopti, 2003 Table 9. Pump Inventory Results and Specifications, 49 June 2004 Table 10. Bacteriological Analysis of Source and 51 Household Water Samples, April 2004

1

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s

Fund (UNICEF), estimate that nearly 1.1 billion people lack access to

improved water supplies and that about 2.4 billion people lack access to

improved sanitation facilities, with the vast majority of these people living in the

developing countries. To achieve the international development target of

halving the percentage of people without access to improved water supply or

sanitation by the year 2015, an additional 1.6 billion people will require access

to water supply and about 2.2 billion will require access to sanitation facilities

by 2015, given the projected population increases (Brikké and Bredero 2003).

The first concerted global effort to meet this target was the International

Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-90). Evaluations of water

supply development projects during the UN Water Decade showed that non-

sustainability of water supply projects and facilities left the majority of the

target populations without access to adequate water supplies or sanitation

facilities (Rotival 1991, Livingstone and McPherson 1993, Diamant 1992).

One global response to the non-sustainability of the UN Water Decade

was to promote the evolution of participatory approaches that began to

consider the local populations as ‘participants’ rather than ‘beneficiaries’ as

was previously the case (Carter et al. 1993). These participatory programs

typically focused on transferring ownership, responsibility and management to

the local level by creating village water committees, requiring the community to

financially contribute to the project, involving women in the management

scheme, training local technicians, ensuring local availability of spare parts,

etc. This step towards a more participatory, locally-managed approach has

2

been effectively integrated into most current water supply development

projects, yet sustainability rates of these projects continue to remain low.

Evaluations of these programs typically attribute the continued non-

sustainability to continued external control of development projects due to

institutional rigidity and a reluctance to allow community participation in the

initial planning and design phases (Mangin 1991, MacRae Jr. and Whittington

1988). Studies have shown that sustainability of water supply projects

improves when communities are allowed to take a central role during all

stages of the project, including design and planning (Mangin 1991, Williams

1998, Bah 1992). As long as choice-of-technology decisions are made by an

outside agency, community demands cannot be met, even if such demands

have been duly assessed (Narayan 1995). Ideally, the role of implementing

agencies during the planning and decision making phase should be to provide

interested communities with all relevant information such as the short- and

long-term costs/benefits/tradeoffs of several available alternatives. The

technology to be offered must show benefits in terms of the community values,

not just water quality improvements that the donors typically stress, but also

convenience, time savings, improved access, etc. (Carter et al. 1993, Kendie

1992, Mu et al. 1990). An informed choice-of-technology and level of service

decision can then be made by the community, consolidating their role as the

primary partner in a project. This local choice can then be supported by the

implementing agency by creating the needed supporting infrastructure (e.g.,

hygiene education, pump repair training, well maintenance) for the community-

chosen type of technology. This type of substantial participation between the

two involved partners has a higher potential of leading to a more sustainable

water supply project (Narayan 1995, Anonymous 1993).

3

Beyond improving the structural sustainability of the water supply

infrastructure, is the more important issue of multiplying the impact that these

improved facilities have on the general health of the local populations.

Research and experience continually confirm that a safe water supply is not

sufficient and that adequate sanitation facilities and hygiene practice are

essential to improving the health of the local population (Brikké and Bredero

2003, Gasana et al. 2002, VanDerslice and Briscoe 1995, Briscoe et al. 1986,

Feachem et al. 1978). Water quality improvements are additionally minimized

by a deterioration of water quality from the source to the point of use (Trevett

et al. 2004, Wright et al. 2004, Genthe et al. 1997). Studies have also shown

that ready access to water and the resulting increases in the quantity used for

hygiene can have a greater impact on health than water quality improvements

(Nyong and Kanaroglou 2001, Cairncross 2003). In brief, water supply

development projects need to extend their scope beyond simply the provision

of sustainable water supply infrastructure. To have the greatest beneficial on

the health of the local population, it will require an integrated multidisciplinary

approach that works in close collaboration with the local population.

The research for the current study was undertaken with the aim of

evaluating the applicability and relevance of the above concepts as applied to

rural water development projects operating in the water-scarce Koro district of

Mali. More specifically, domestic water-use patterns, choice-of-technology

preferences, sustainability perceptions, and general hygiene practice were

observed and recorded during a ten-month study throughout various villages

in the Koro district as part of the Cornell International Institute for Food,

Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD) contribution to the West Africa Water

Initiative (WAWI). The principal implementing partner of WAWI-Mali is World

4

Vision and their initial objective within the WAWI project zones of Mali is to

drill 225 successful (wet) boreholes and to equip these with new India Mark 2

hand pumps. To complement these infrastructural improvements, CIIFAD

operates within the WAWI partnership as a knowledge-generating and

capacity-building institution. CIIFAD plans to (1) ensure ecologically

sustainable management of water and the broader natural resource base of

which water is an integral component; (2) investigate the sustainability of

micro-irrigation at the village-level in relation to the efficiency and

effectiveness of water use through micro-irrigation innovation in Mali; and (3)

investigate and assess local institutional mechanisms, gender relationships

and patterns of decision-making in the management of water resources in

WAWI areas in Mali (CIIFAD, 2003). To this effect, the current research

examines the relevance and importance of adopting an integrated, multi-

disciplinary approach to rural water development projects in the Koro district

of Mali. Funding for this research was provided by CIIFAD and the National

Science Foundation.

5

CHAPTER TWO PROJECT SETTING

Mali is a landlocked nation covering an area of 1,240,000 square

kilometers, the northern three-quarters of which lie within the Saharan and

Sahelian zones. The country is home to approximately 11 million residents,

72% of whom live in the rural sector (Toulmin et al. 2000). Rain-fed

subsistence farming of cereals (millet and sorghum), animal husbandry, and

irrigated paddy rice cultivation along the major rivers remain the principal

agricultural activities despite poor soil fertility and highly variable rainfall. The

specific zone of interest for this study is the district of Koro (Cercle de Koro)

which corresponds with the first intervention zone of the WAWI project (Figure

1). This district is classified as semiarid with an annual precipitation of 500 –

600 mm per year, and daytime temperatures typically exceed 33° C

throughout the year. There are three main seasons: the rainy season (mid-

June – September), the cooler Harmattan period (October – January), and the

hot season (February – mid-June).

Koro’s water resources are severely limited as there are no permanent

rivers or lakes in the district and groundwater is typically deep and difficult to

locate. During the rainy season, small surface water reservoirs fill with water

and become the primary water resource for the rural villages of the district. At

the onset of the dry season, these surface reservoirs begin to dry up and

groundwater becomes the only available source of water for the remaining

seven to eight months of the year. This groundwater is typically located in

discontinuous, slowly recharging aquifers at 50 – 100 meters below the sandy

surface layers of Arenosol type soils, and confined under a thick impermeable

layer of rock (30 – 60 meters). The aquifers are highly fragmented and

6

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Mopti

Bamako

Sikasso

Timbuktu

Koro Kayes

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Bargou

Ogodouroukoro

Gakou

Yadianga

BenebourouPomorodoudiou

Zon

Dangatene

Koro

Bondo

M a l iM a l i

Burkina Faso

MauritanieMauritanie

Côte d'IvoireCôte d'Ivoire

GuinéeGuinée

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AlgérieAlgérie

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Figure 1. Region of Study

BéninBénin

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Study Villages

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7

subsurface conditions may vary drastically across relatively short horizontal

distances.

The three villages of this study, Yadianga, Ogodouroukoro and

Benebourou for example, are all located within 12 kilometers of Koro and yet

they demonstrate very different groundwater availability characteristics. The

village of Yadianga (pop. 2,473 est. 2001) typically has yearly access to a

superficial unconfined aquifer at ~28 meters, but the wells accessing this

aquifer begin to dry up during the dry season. The village of Ogodouroukoro

(pop. 612 est. 2001) has no viable amount of water stored within the shallow

superficial aquifer and their only groundwater source is the deeper confined

aquifer (~75 meters). As for the village of Benebourou (pop. 1,570 est. 2001),

they benefit from a plentiful shallow aquifer (~5 meters).

8

CHAPTER THREE METHODS

To determine the effect of groundwater depth on water-use behaviors, a

comparative study of three villages having different depths to the groundwater

(5, 25 and 75 meters) was conducted in the district of Koro. The villages of

study were chosen in close collaboration with World Vision-Koro and their field

staff. The main selection criteria for the three villages were, 1) the existence

of at least one manual pump and at least one large-diameter well, 2) differing

groundwater depths (5, 25 and 75 meters), and 3) a village population of

approximately 2,000 residents. Problem identification was carried out through

interactive sessions with the village councils, village women’s groups, village

hygiene groups, local mayors, NGO staff, and the village residents. Formally

structured in-depth water resource surveys were conducted with the head

woman of 10 households per village. The interviews were prepared with the

help of Winrock and World Vision field agents, as well as the village hosts. The

households were chosen with the help of the village hosts to ensure a

representative cross-section of the population. Structured interviews were

undertaken with the regional representatives of World Vision, CARE, the

Direction Nationale de l’Hydraulique et de l’Energie du Mali (DNHE), the

mayors of Koro and Bondo, and the 4 pump managers from Yadianga.

Informal, unstructured interviews of 10 – 20 men per village were conducted

throughout the study. Average groundwater extraction rates were recorded at

a major well (and pump, if applicable) for a period of 24 hours. Water-use

behavior, pump management schemes, water storage techniques and hygiene

practice were obtained through direct observation of activities at the water

sources as well as the in-depth individual surveys with local water users and

9

pump managers. A regional pump inventory and assessment was conducted

with the help of the local mayor’s offices and several village representatives in

each village having a manual pump in the counties of Bondo and Koro during

the month of June. Borehole data for 16 of the 44 inventoried pumps was

provided by the DNHE. General demographic information and county water

resource planning documents were provided by the local mayor’s offices of the

counties of Bondo and Koro. Water quality analyses were conducted under

the supervision of the DNHE in Bamako.

10

CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS

Observations of the use and management of water resources in the three

villages of study were recorded during the dry season of 2004. The following

section will address the type of access to groundwater in the villages of study,

the way in which the groundwater was drawn to the surface, water-use at the

household level and for livestock and gardening purposes, local preferences

for various water supply infrastructure, manual pump sustainability on a

regional level, and hygiene and sanitation conditions in the villages of study.

Groundwater Access

The villages of study were found to have two major types of access to

groundwater: large-diameter wells and manual pumps. Large-diameter wells

were classified into three main categories: reinforced, modern or traditional.

Wells having both concrete linings to the depth of the confining rock stratum

and also a concrete margin at the opening of the well were classified as

‘reinforced.’ Wells having only the concrete margin and no concrete lining

were classified as ‘modern.’ Within these two classifications, most of the wells

were equipped with a structurally solid crossbar, either metallic or wooden,

where the men and women attach their pulleys to more easily hoist the water.

Wells that did not meet these conditions were classified as traditional.

The manual pumps found in the villages of study included the India-Mali

and UPM pumps. Both pumps are positive displacement pumps (piston

pumps) that are operated by pressing down on a single metal lever that is

connected to a series of tubes that mechanically lift the water. India-Mali

pumps were reported to be easier to use than the UPM and are approximately

11

1 meter high, while UPM pumps, known throughout the region as the ‘giant

green pumps,’ are about 3 meters tall and require the user to pull down a 2.5-

meter lever from above their head to the ground. Across the district, foot

pumps (Vergnet) and various solar-, diesel-, and wind-powered pumps were

found as well.

Drawing Water

For domestic water use, the responsibility for supplying the household with

a daily supply of water rests firmly upon the women in the three villages of

study, but the labor is typically divided up amongst various parties. In the

villages with shallower groundwater (Yadianga and Benebourou), school-aged

children (7-17 years of age) were found to supply much of the actual labor for

drawing and transporting water. In these villages, water from the large-

diameter wells was always drawn by hand. Although women still pulled water

by hand in the village with deeper groundwater (Ogodouroukoro), the young

men (20-30 years of age) and draught animals played a much more prominent

role in drawing water. Often men drawing water for their animals at the well

would help the women by lending them their donkey, or by pulling the cord by

hand and then leaving the transportation of the water to the women. Women

would remain the responsible party, but the men were much more willing to

help the women than in the other villages of this study, possibly owing to the

more laborious nature of the activity as groundwater level is deepest in this

village compared to the other two villages of study. Water for livestock is a

primary responsibility for men (10-40 years of age) and they would use either

draught animals or their hands.

12

Water Use

Severely water-stressed environments, like the district of Koro, obligate

the local population to follow a fundamental order of water-use priority. People

will always be required to satisfy the first element of the list (human

consumption) before continuing to the second and third levels.1 These

priorities can be ranked as follows:

1. Human Consumption

2. Livestock Consumption

3. Other Activities (gardening, hygiene, brick building, etc.)

Adhering to this philosophy, it seems appropriate to begin this analysis

from the top of the list.

Domestic Use

Groundwater use at the home was more or less constant for the three

villages of study (28 L/c/d ± 6 L/c/d). The unexpected finding was that

average per capita domestic water use was found to be highest in

Ogodouroukoro where the water is deepest. During the rainy season,

groundwater use was reported to decline for villages that continue to access

the wells, and to completely cease in villages that abandon the wells in favor

of the available surface water stored in the seasonal ponds. During the rainy

season, surface water was found to be an essential component of water-use

activities in all of the villages. It should be noted that the population of the

village may increase by 30-50% during the rainy season due to the return of

the young men to the village to work the fields, and so the recorded decline in

1 Formally presented by Bara Kassambara of Winrock International and repeatedly stressed by various community members, NGO and local government authorities.

13

per capita water-use is roughly offset by the increase in overall household size

meaning that the overall water demand for domestic use remains relatively

constant throughout the year.

Table 1. Daily Per Capita Domestic Water Use

Daily Per Capita Water Use (L/c/d) Village

Dry Season Rainy Season

Yadianga 26 ± 6 16 ± 4

Ogodouroukoro 29 ± 7 0

Benebourou 28 ± 5 15 ± 5

Figure 2 shows the results of the assessment of domestic water use by

activity in the three villages of study. It can be seen that bathing was the

activity that consumed the most water. Drinking, represented approximately

11% of the total water use and ranked as the fourth most important activity in

respect to the quantity of water used. The most significant variance in water

use behavior by activity was found in the livestock component and can be

related to water scarcity during the driest months of the year.

The source of groundwater that people were choosing to access in these

three villages depended upon the individual household’s choice and the

current state of the available hand pumps. In the village of Yadianga, 24-hour

surveys of one primary large-diameter well and the two functioning hand

pumps, showed that 80% of the village’s water for domestic consumption was

being assured from the large-diameter wells. The remaining 20% was being

pumped from the two India-Mali hand pumps (Table 2). Similarly, a survey of

14

Figure 2. Average Domestic Water Use by Activity,Dry and Rainy Seasons, 2004

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Drinking

Cooking

Bathing

Washing dishes

Washing clothes

Ablutions

Livestock

Trees/Flowers

Wa

te

r U

se (

% o

f T

otal)

dry season rainy season

15

the hand pump managers revealed that only 33 households (17% of the

village) were currently contributing to the hand pump fund and therefore

permitted to use the hand pumps. Even at this low use (20% of domestic

water needs), it was observed that the two pumps were being used nearly to

capacity during approximately 12 hours per day. It is interesting to note that

by the end of the study, these two pumps were also broken and all of the

water needs of the village were being met by the large-diameter wells.

Table 2. Daily Water Withdrawn (Domestic Use) Yadianga, February 2004

Water Source Domestic

Water (L/day)

Percent of Total

Domestic

Demand (%)

Manual Pumps (2) 11,200 20

Large-diameter

Wells (4) 43,900 80

Table 3. Daily Water Withdrawn (Total) Yadianga, February 2004

Water Source Total Water

(L/day)

Percent of Total

(%)

Pumps (2) 11,200 11

Large-diameter

Wells (4) 88,500 89

16

The hand pumps were limited by several factors. The main reason stated

for not using the pumps was a lack of economic resources to pay the initial

contribution or the required maintenance costs. Women frequently stated that

they prefer to use the pumps but lack the funds to do so. In the case of

Yadianga, frequent breakdowns of the pumps have led many men and women

to believe that it is not worth the continued investment. Another primary

reason for the limited use of hand pumps in Yadianga was that the flow rates

from the hand pumps could not meet the demands of the entire population

even if the residents were to use the pumps for 24 hours a day. The

maximum pumping rate from the India-Mali hand pumps was found to 14.5

L/min which is above the WHO minimum acceptable limit of 13 L/min (Brikké

2003), but this was only true of one of the hand pumps, whereas the other

pump had an observed maximum rate of 9.3 L/min. In comparison, the

maximum withdrawal rate from the large-diameter wells was observed to be

66.3 L/min. The inadequate pumping rates from the hand pumps necessarily

leads to the limited use of the hand pumps and the continued reliance upon

large-diameter wells to meet domestic daily water requirements. Other

reported reasons for not using the pumps include a preference for the taste of

well water, the belief that it was good luck to drink the well water, and that the

distance to the pump was too great. Thus it can be seen that cultural factors

as well as practical constraints are also important determinants of water use

behaviors in the communities studied.

Livestock Use

The Gondo-Seno plain of Mali supports one of West Africa’s most

numerous populations of livestock (mainly cattle, sheep, goats, camels and

17

donkeys). During the rainy season, the transhumant Fulani herders move the

herds out of the village as they can rely exclusively on surface water to water

their herds and to meet their own personal needs as well. The livestock which

stay year-round in the village (small herds of sheep and goats as well as the

draught cattle), are watered at nearby ponds during the rainy season. By the

end of the rainy season however, these ponds begin to dry up, surface water

becomes harder to find and the transhumant herders begin to return to the

outskirts of the villages in search of water for their herds. For the next seven

to eight months, the drinking requirements of the livestock will be met

exclusively by groundwater. In the villages of study, water for the livestock

was obtained exclusively from the large-diameter wells.

Typical per head estimates for daily drinking water requirements in the

Sahel are 27 liters for cattle, 5 liters for sheep and goats, 16 liters for donkeys

and 50 liters for camels (FAO 1986). Using these estimates in a village like

Yadianga, which supports a population of approximately 900 cattle, 3000

sheep and goats, 250 donkeys and 25 camels2, it is predicted that the village

will need to provide approximately 44,550 liters of water per day to satisfy the

needs of the livestock. Observations at the large-diameter wells confirmed

these estimates and showed that livestock used nearly as much water per day

as the human residents (Table 4).

2 Official 2001 figures from the Koro Mayor’s office for the village of Yadianga reported 339 cattle, 1531 sheep, 9 horses, 129 donkeys and 3 camels. These figures were acknowledged by the mayor’s office and everyone else in the region as gross underestimates due to severe under reporting by the population. The figures used here are more realistic estimates of actual population sizes in 2004.

18

Table 4. Daily Well Water Withdrawn Yadianga, February 2004

Water Use Water Withdrawn (L/day)

Percent of Total Water Demand

(%)

Livestock 44,600 45

Domestic 55,100 55

One of the major issues raised by the village councils and residents of

both Ogodouroukoro and Yadianga was that the livestock not only exert

significant pressure upon the supply of available water, but they also adversely

affect the quality of the water. The livestock come to the wells once or twice a

day to drink from a reservoir adjacent to the well, usually a large bucket or half

of a 200-liter barrel, placed not more than 5 meters distant from the well.

Many wells are equipped with adjacent concrete reservoirs for the livestock,

but due to design flaws and their inconvenience to the herders, none of these

were found to be in use. As the cattle wait for their turn to drink, they meander

about near the well, kicking up sand and defecating. Some of this sand and

manure is inadvertently swept up by the wind or the ropes being used to pull

water, and a portion ends up in the bottom of the well. The manure left by the

cattle does have some positive implications for the village as the majority of it

is collected by the residents for use on their fields as fertilizer, but the

residents stated that it was not good to have the cattle so close to a well which

is also used to provide drinking water for the human population.

19

Gardening

In the district of Koro, small-scale gardening (shallots, garlic, tomatoes,

peppers, potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, etc.) is a principal economic activity

during the dry season (November – May). The most extensive gardens (10 –

15 hectares) were found in Benebourou, where the gardeners have access to

the shallow groundwater (~5 meters) throughout the entire dry season. As the

water table becomes deeper throughout the district, the extent and duration of

the gardens become significantly smaller. In Yadianga the total area occupied

by gardens was reported to be approximately 1 hectare, even though the

village has 35% more residents than Benebourou, and no gardens were found

in the month of February due to the scarcity of water at that point of the dry

season. No gardens were found in Ogodouroukoro and the residents

expressed that they had no intention of trying to garden. No pump water was

found to be used for gardening purposes in the district.

Water Supply Infrastructure Preferences

Perspectives on the type of water supply infrastructure currently in-use

and what is needed for the sustainable development of the Koro district were

gathered via formal and informal surveys from village members, the NGO

community, local governments and an entrepreneur specializing in reinforced

wells.

Community members

Preferred types of water supply infrastructure varied along gender lines

and water table depths, and also according to previous experience with

various technologies. In Benebourou, the village with the easiest access to

20

groundwater, an overwhelming majority (94%) of the women indicated that

they would choose a hand pump. This reflects the fact that water scarcity is

not an issue in the village and that there exists a sufficient number of large-

diameter wells. As the water table decreases, preferences became more

balanced, and the women of Yadianga chose hand pumps to wells by a 73%

to 27% margin. The increased percentage of women preferring wells was

attributed to concerns over pump costs and the lack of sustainability of the

pumps. Many women in Yadianga also mentioned that they had seen solar

pumps and wind pumps in the surrounding villages and that for Yadianga to

truly advance, and for women’s suffering to decrease, the village needed to

contribute to a larger project that would bring in a solar- or wind-powered

pump. In the village with the deepest water, Ogodouroukoro, only 45% of the

women preferred pumps over wells and those women who chose pumps

qualified their statements by stating that they would only want a pump if it was

easier to use than the UPM pump currently in the village. Considering the

incredible hardship that the women endure in drawing water from such depths,

it was not surprising that the women of this village were the most adamant in

demanding a solar-, wind-, or diesel-powered pump.

Whereas the women based their decisions mainly upon ease of access,

the men typically answered based upon the potential costs of maintaining the

water access point and also by looking at other issues not entirely related to

the provision of household water. In the village with the easiest access to

water, Benebourou, the men spoke of constructing several large-diameter

wells at the eastern edge of the village so that residents of neighboring Bondo

could come to draw their water there. They also stated that the village had a

plenitude of water access points and that the village needs a large pond for

21

pisciculture. In the village of Yadianga, the men were frustrated with the

performance and sustainability of the hand pumps and most men stated that

they would not be interested in a hand pump but that they would prefer a fifth

large-diameter well that could help meet the demands of the village’s livestock.

They felt that large-diameter wells were a more appropriate long-term solution

and that it was necessary to have a sufficient number of wells before

beginning to put their resources into repairing pumps. The village council

made it clear that they would prefer to invest in the construction of a water

tower that would provide running water to several village standposts. The

council also expressed interest in constructing a large pond (2 hectares) at the

edge of the village for gardening purposes in an effort to improve the food

security of the village.

In the village with the deepest water, Ogodouroukoro, the village council

expressed that they would not be interested in another hand pump, because

the UPM had proved to be far too difficult for the women, and they were not

confident that a new hand pump could perform any better than the UPM.

Some members claimed that the village still needed at least one more large-

diameter well in order to meet the livestock demands and also to provide the

women with another alternative source during the driest months, while others

were interested in improving the three existing large-diameter wells and would

only want to invest in a new large-diameter well that would not dry up during

the months of May and June. As for their vision of a true solution to the

problem, there was a general consensus, in agreement with the women’s, that

a powered pump (diesel or solar) would be the only real option considering the

depth of the water.

22

Local Government Perspectives

Analysis of the three-year development plans for the rural sectors of the

counties of Bondo and Koro in regards to water resources, found that the top

five priorities and budget allocations were as follows:

1. Construction of large-diameter wells

2. Installation of village-wide water distribution systems

3. Installation of solar pumps

4. Reinforcement and rehabilitation of existing large-diameter wells

5. Construction of large ponds (mares) to meet the demands of livestock

These priorities were developed through detailed multi-day evaluations

with the various villages of the counties and these views were meant to reflect

the needs and priorities of the villages themselves. The most notable point to

make about this list is the absence of any mention of hand pumps. When the

mayor of Bondo was asked why hand pumps were not a priority and yet the

village of Bondo had recently contributed money for the installation of two

hand pumps as part of WAWI, his response was that “our priorities have

changed” and that in a water-scarce village like Bondo, the chief cannot refuse

any type of assistance that is offered.

In relation to the second priority, village-wide distribution systems, the

mayor of Koro highlighted the fact that the national agenda regarding water

supply development states that any village with more than 3,000 residents

should have a village-wide distribution system in place. This, he said, was his

goal as well, but that financial constraints were making the execution of this

goal impossible. Nevertheless, he felt that when dealing with the larger

villages of the county such as Yadianga, it would be more desirable to

introduce a water tower and general distribution system than to continue to

23

pour resources into the temporary solution offered by hand pumps. The

village council of Yadianga agreed with this and expressed the need for a

large-scale solution to their water supply difficulties.

Non-Governmental Organizations

Interviews in 2003 and 2004 with various regional directors and field

agents of both CARE International (CARE) and World Vision revealed that

there is a difference between the organizations’ official views on rural water

supply and the staff’s personal views. The regional director for CARE who has

been working in the water development sector for over 20 years, expressed

his belief that financial realities in rural Mali make large-diameter wells the

most appropriate solution. He stated that he sees a significant problem

between the money-lending institutions, the implementing agencies (typically

NGOs), and the villages that are to be served. The money-lenders are often

capable of obligating an NGO to promote and install a certain type of

technology which leads to a situation in which an NGO enters into a village to

provide something that the money-lenders have assumed to be desirable for

the local population, but which is not. However, due to the extremely water

scarce conditions in this region, the villagers have no real choice except to

accept the NGO’s proposed solution. Eventually, the village ends up with the

responsibility for managing an intervention they did not necessarily want in the

first place and the village’s own resources are exhausted in the process.

The regional director for World Vision has also been involved in the water

supply sector for many years and explained that the current water supply

development approach is aimed at providing potable water to the rural

communities and that WAWI is a positive initial step in meeting the lasting

24

needs of the rural populations. The installation of hand pumps in these

villages, along with the concurrent creation of pump maintenance groups,

hygiene groups and the initial financial contribution of the village, are essential

steps in leading to the long-term success of the project. However, the director

also pointed out that, in his view, long-term water accessibility should be

complemented with the construction of large-diameter wells to ensure a low-

maintenance option in case of financial or logistical difficulties related to the

hand pumps. The reality in the field is that the potability of pump water, while

desirable by all parties, takes a back seat to the simple existence of an

adequate quantity of water which can more effectively be provided via large-

diameter wells. This view was widely held among the field staff of World

Vision as well. A senior hygiene and sanitation agent for World Vision

summed up the situation as follows: the villages of this district face extremely

difficult conditions of water scarcity. The most important thing that needs to be

provided for these villages is an adequate supply of water. If there is not

enough water, it is unreasonable to expect the villagers to be able to

adequately comply with even the most basic hygienic practice in regards to the

domestic drinking water supply. With the installation of hand pumps, the

supply is almost never sufficient, and as a field agent it is incredibly difficult to

influence the hygiene behavior of the villagers when they have such limited

supplies of water. However, if the village is given a large-diameter well, the

supply is typically much greater, and this makes the villagers much more likely

and capable of complying with the recommended hygiene practices. That is to

say that it is much more effective to teach somebody how to be hygienic with

an adequate supply of well water than a limited supply of pump water.

25

Entrepreneur (Large-Diameter Well Specialist)

A private entrepreneur based in Koro, Abdoulaye Beloum, who had

previously worked for 17 years with the national large-diameter well initiative

(Opération Puits), continues to be the primary specialist in his field for the

entire Koro region. He has worked in wells that are over 100 years old and he

believes that if a well is properly constructed, it should last for at least 100

years. His experience has shown that the water quality from large-diameter

wells can be extremely good if they are lined with concrete cylinders all the

way to the bottom and the upper margin is adequately constructed (reinforced

well). He also stated that growing up in the region, has led him to understand

that the essential need of the region is an adequate and plentiful supply of

water. Considering the low-maintenance requirements of large-diameter

wells, these are, in his opinion, the best way to ensure an adequate and

permanent supply of groundwater.

Water Supply Development Approach

The current approach being used in the Koro district by World Vision in

the WAWI project begins by contacting the local mayor’s office to present

their objective of improving water access conditions in the region. World

Vision asks for a list of the villages that are in most need of assistance and

uses this list as a guide to decide where to install pumps. The final decisions

are typically based upon three general criteria: 1) the absence of a pump in

the village, 2) village population, and 3) in the case of an already existing

pump, the degree of successful pump management. Once the list is finalized

by World Vision, the villages are contacted and asked if they are willing to

contribute 100,000 FCFA to begin the process of drilling a borehole and

26

installing an India-Mali Mark II hand pump in their village. No other water

supply infrastructure alternatives are offered to the villages, and every village

receives an India-Mark II hand pump regardless of the specific groundwater

conditions of the village. Pump committees are established with a focus on

women’s participation, local mechanics are trained to perform routine

maintenance on the pumps, spare parts are made available through the

World Vision office, and a hygiene group is established.

Sustainability of Manual Pumps

A survey of all 28 villages with manual pumps in the counties of Koro and

Bondo was conducted in the month of June, corresponding with the latter

stages of the dry season. Data was gathered regarding the current condition

of the existing 39 manual pumps and 5 more advanced pumping systems.

Background data on the boreholes was obtained through the DNHE. Pumps

that were being used on a daily basis were considered to be ‘in-use,’

regardless of the flow rates from the pumps. For the two counties, 41% of the

manual pumps were found to be in-use (Table 5).

Table 5. Total Number of Manual Pumps In-Use for

the Counties of Koro and Bondo, June 2004

Pump Type Success Rate Success Rate

(%)

UPM 4/21 19%

India-Mali 6/11 55%

Vergnet 6/7 86%

TOTAL 16/39 41%

27

It should be noted that many of the pumps were being used under very

difficult circumstances. The two UPM pumps in Dangatene for instance,

required four people working together to pull down the pumping lever and the

India-Mali pumps in this village were barely functioning (4-5 L/min). The

minimum acceptable flow rate established by the World Health Organization’s

guidelines for rural water supply sources is 13 L/min. Applying this standard to

the pumps of the two counties, it can be seen that only 10% of the manual

pumps were operating above the WHO guidelines (Table 6). Further, if the

Vergnet foot pumps are not considered, this figure dropped to 3%.

Table 6. Manual Pumps Meeting WHO Guidelines

(Flow Rate > 13 l / min), June 2004

Pump Type Success Rate Success Rate (%)

UPM 0/21 0%

India-Mali 1/11 9%

Vergnet 3/7 43%

TOTAL 4/39 10%

The DNHE and local residents presented several reasons for the low

success rates. Absence of spare parts and specialized labor, poor pump

management, and a critical lack of basic information on behalf of the users

were the primary reasons given for the failures. In addition, many of these

pumps were installed as part of region-wide experimentation efforts that used

materials that turned out to be poorly suited to the environment leaving the

users therefore unfairly overburdened with poorly adapted pumps. Across the

two counties, the pumps were typically operating at static water levels of an

28

average depth of 37 meters, meaning that the pumps were operating at depths

near or beyond their design capacity (45 meters, maximum design depth for

India-Mali and Vergnet pumps). Under these conditions, pumping forces are

near the maximum recommended by the pump manufacturers and for the

pump to properly function it would need to be in near perfect condition. It was

reported that none of the pumps had ever been serviced other than when

there is a breakdown. This implies that no routine maintenance was being

performed on the pumps, and consequently the probability of breakdown was

high. Local NGO staff, including hydro-geologic experts, elaborated on this

difficulty. They explained that hand pumps were not designed to operate at

the groundwater depths of this district and that even with proper maintenance,

the pumps were being stretched beyond their capacities and pump failure was

likely.

Another contributing factor to the low success rate was reported to be

poor management of the pumps at the village level. Discussions with

Yadianga’s women’s group and village hygiene group showed that many

women of the village were frustrated with the current management of the hand

pumps and there was a consensus among the women that they could do a

better job of managing the pumps than the men. In Yadianga, the current

pump managers were older men who had no previous pump management

experience, three of the four did not even know the name of the pump (India-

Mali) and they had been chosen based upon the fact that they lived in the

general vicinity of the pump and that they were old enough not leave the

village throughout the year. Not only were the women not involved in the

official management of the pumps, but they were also dependent upon their

husbands to provide funds for the pump. The women of Yadianga stated that

29

if they had more financial independence, the pumps would be fixed much

sooner. They also stressed the fact that the men of the village have not

placed enough importance on the value of the hand pumps and this has led to

a situation in which the village’s financial resources have been invested in

sectors other than water supply. If the women were to have more financial

responsibility, they claim that more money would be spent on the water supply

sector, and therefore the actual financial capacity of the village to deal with

water supply issues would be higher than under the current management

scheme. This raises the issue of the gender dimension of sustainable pump

management, as well as addressing the fact that within the existing patriarchal

and ethnically segregated hierarchal system in the villages of the Koro district,

management decisions are typically left to the elderly men, autochthonous to

the village.

Commenting on the issue of local economic capacity, Ibrahim Togola of

the Mali Folkecenter in Bamako, who has spent over ten years working on

water supply issues across the Sahelian areas of West Africa, spoke of the

importance of correlating the type of pumping infrastructure with the financial

capacity of the village. One way to ensure the financial sustainability of a

water supply development project is to fix a price on the pumped water to

begin to get away from the idea that water is a free resource. Although the

current study did not rigorously address this issue, all parties of the water

supply sector have constantly discussed this issue and its importance seems

to be indisputable.

30

Hygiene and Sanitation

Household drinking water was always kept in a communal water jar,

typically made of clay or occasionally plastic. The women were typically the

managers of these jars and they were responsible for keeping them clean and

full. Some smaller families were able to keep very small water jars (~15 liters);

while the larger families would often have much larger water jars (~75 liters).

Typically, water was served from the jar by a plastic or metal drinking cup.

Household members and visitors would typically use the same cup for

drinking, which practically leads to continual contamination of the water in the

jar. Water that was going to be used for cooking, bathing, washing dishes,

or household activities other than drinking was typically stored in a very large,

uncovered water jar. These jars were typically not nearly as clean as the jars

used for drinking purposes and algal growth, small worms, and large debris

was commonly found in these jars. Residents claimed that the water from

these jars was never used for direct consumption, but men, women and

children were all observed to drink water from the jars at some point during

this study.

The issue of proper water storage was something that both World Vision

and the regional government hygiene staff were interested in promoting. They

both were conducting village-level training programs stressing the importance

of covered water jars and point-of-use treatment using bleach. In order to

assess the impact of these programs, a survey of water jars in the three

villages of study was undertaken. The results found a significantly higher

proportion of covered water jars in the villages where recent training sessions

had been given (Benebourou, 84% and Yadianga, 45%). In Ogodouroukoro,

where no training had been given, only 22% of the water jars were covered.

31

Table 7. Water Jar Survey Results Dry Season, 2004

Water Jars (% of Total) Type / Condition of

Water Jar Benebourou Yadianga Ogodouroukoro

Small-Mouth / Covered 84 45 22

Small-Mouth / Not Covered 16 30 51

Large-Mouth / Not Covered 0 25 27

Point of Use Water Treatment

During the formal and informal interviews, two methods of household

water treatment were found to be in practice in the region of study: filtering and

bleaching. The women claimed that due to the prevalence of Guinea worm

during the rainy season, they filtered the pond water directly at the ponds

before carrying the water home. At the home, women reported that they

filtered their water, but this was rarely observed. If the household had a filter it

was typically torn or broken and most women claimed to be waiting for the

government to bring them new filters, rather than trying to repair the filters.

Local hygiene groups mentioned that they were interested in encouraging

filtration with clean fabric to replace the typically torn original strainers and

they asked for additional support of the NGO community to assist them in

conducting pond water treatment training seminars in their villages. Recent

evidence of one new case of Guinea worm found in a village next to

Ogodouroukoro for this rainy season, August 2004, demonstrates that Guinea

32

worm is still a problem in the region and that fighting for its eradication should

be continued.

The second method of treating household water was direct disinfection by

using a small quantity of bleach. This technique was being promoting by

World Vision and the District Hygiene Department of Koro. Most women were

convinced that this was an adequate way of treating their household water, yet

very few women actually claimed to be using bleach. The outside agencies

had given away small bottles of bleach to the villages in an effort to promote

point-of-use disinfection. These bottles were used until they were empty and

then in most cases, bleaching was abandoned. The women complained that

bleach was not locally available and that they could not often make the trip to

Koro where they could buy it.

33

CHAPTER FIVE DISCUSSION

The observations from this 10-month study and a review of the current

literature show that there are several essential factors that need to be duly

considered to ensure a sustainable and effective water supply development

project. The main factor contributing to project sustainability is community

involvement during all phases of the project, especially the planning and

design phases. Community involvement imparts ownership of the project to

the community, reduces the impact of external influence on choice-of-

technology decisions, and requires that spare parts and technical expertise be

locally available. To ensure the effectiveness of the project, not only does the

project need to be sustainable, but aspects of hygiene and sanitation need to

be equally considered to ensure that the health impacts of the improved water

sources are as great as possible. The following discussion will address these

issues as related to the Koro district of Mali.

Water Supply Development Approach

Due to the historically poor sustainability of manual pumps in the region of

study and in the greater region as a whole, local and international efforts have

been dedicated to finding a better and more sustainable approach to water

supply development. The current approaches to water supply development in

the region are attempting to adopt a more participatory approach to target the

appropriate villages and to ensure the continued maintenance and

sustainability of the water supply infrastructure. This approach is a

tremendous improvement upon previous projects, as women are being

included in the pump management committees, spare parts and technical

34

expertise are being assured at the local level, and the importance of hygiene is

also being recognized. However, certain aspects of this approach can still be

improved upon.

Currently, the local populations are completely excluded from the choice-

of-technology decision and this can be seen as detrimental to the potential

sustainability of the project. In water scarce regions like the district of Koro,

villages are highly unlikely to refuse any water supply project that attempts to

bring assistance, regardless of the type of technology offered and how this fits

with their own development philosophy. This was clearly the case in Bondo,

where the community had outlined their development objectives and manual

pumps did not make the list. Yet when the village was offered the manual

pumps, due to a severe lack of water in the village they were in effect

obligated to accept them. The willingness of local villages to put forth initial

financial contributions for the offered type of technology does not necessarily

reflect the village’s preference for such a technology, but simply affirms the

fact that the village is in need of increased access to its groundwater

resources.

An additional concern with the current development approach that may

lead to non-sustainability issues is that implementing agencies stock the spare

parts for the pumps, rather than the local spare parts suppliers that have been

trained and designated by the regional governments. This type of

arrangement seems to be common in the international NGO field, as local

government agencies are often times resource-lacking and therefore judged

as incompetent. By supplanting the local government agency, however, the

NGO relegates the government agency to an inferior position, further

reinforcing the concept that local government agencies are inefficient and lack

35

credibility. This serves to undercut the existing state agencies (Carter et al.

1999, Akouoko-Asibey 1997). The NGO becomes the primary point of contact

for the local population and the government is viewed as a secondary option.

In the potential case where the implementing agency is no longer operating in

the region, as was recently the case with the withdrawal of World Vision from

the Gao region, or the loss of funding for a CARE well project in the Koro

district, a lack of spare parts situation could emerge. Considering that

government will always exist regardless of the presence of NGOs, it is

important to improve the capacity of the local government institutions to more

effectively meet the needs of the local populations rather than to fill the

existing gap with the resources of often transitory NGOs.

Choice-of-Technology Decisions and Tradeoffs

The current study has further demonstrated that the type of technology

considered appropriate by the local population is highly varied and depends

upon such factors as groundwater depth, perceived water scarcity in the

village, gender of the user, convenience, village size, livestock population

sizes, previous experience with various technologies, and the economic

capacity of the users. In general, villages with deep groundwater are typically

more concerned about water scarcity issues than villages with shallow

groundwater. In the villages of Ogodouroukoro and Yadianga, domestic water

supply was the top development priority of the village, whereas in Benebourou

it was given a much lower priority. While the priority of water supply

development differs for various villages throughout the region, the in-depth

water resource surveys showed that the readily available quantity of water was

considered to be more important than the source water quality. This suggests

36

a general preference for water supply technologies that provide a sufficient

supply of water, typically associated with large-diameter wells. This view was

expressed and enumerated in the development plans of several village

councils, local government agencies, and was favored by NGO staff and many

of the village residents. However, on the other hand, the women of the region,

who are responsible for assuring that the domestic water needs of the villages

are met, were primarily concerned with reducing the work required to draw

water on a daily basis. For this reason, most of the women of the three study

villages were in favor of the installation of solar pumps or other highly technical

solutions that would make fetching water more convenient. Given these

differing views within the villages, how can the villages and development

agencies reach a consensus on how to best provide easy access to a

sufficient supply of water on a sustainable basis?

Considering that the differences in opinion are evident from the original

choice-of-technology preference through to the management strategy of the

resource, community involvement should necessarily exist from the outset of

the project. Recent studies have shown that sustainability of water supply

projects improves when communities are allowed to take a central role during

all stages of the project, including design and planning (Mangin 1991, Williams

1998, Bah 1992). In the case of previous projects (e.g., FED7), the observed

failure of the pumps can in part be attributed to the project’s failure to involve

the communities in the design, planning and management phases. In the

case of the FED7 project, although it was widely known by the DNHE and the

pump suppliers in the region that the UPM pumps require regular replacement

of the pistons, none of the surveyed villages with a UPM pump were aware of

this. If the villages are unaware of the expected future requirements of the

37

water supply infrastructure, it cannot be expected that they will be able to

maintain them. This transfer of information and training regarding the

technical and financial requirements of the various technological options rests

with the implementing agencies (both governmental and non-governmental).

A transparent and total transfer of information is necessary to support a truly

community-based decision making process.

During the planning phase, an exhaustive list of technological options,

highlighting the tradeoffs of the different technologies, should be created in a

collaborative manner with both the village and the implementing agency.

Technical information can be provided by the implementing agencies that have

the access to this type of knowledge. An example of the manual pump

component of such a list, comparing the two most common manual pumps

found in the region, was compiled by the Direction Régionale de l’Hydraulique

et de l’Energie – Mopti in 2003 (Table 8).

In addition to the list of tradeoffs, water supply infrastructure in

neighboring villages can be assessed and evaluated by all of the stakeholders

in the current project. Once the village is provided with enough information

regarding the various tradeoffs for all of the possible water supply options

(from large-diameter wells to solar pumps), the village can make an informed

and appropriate decision. Using this type of approach, the responsibility of the

decision is transferred to the village, which allows the implementing agency to

play a supporting role in helping the village to realize their own objectives. A

supporting role for the implementing agency is preferable to the common

scenario in which they have chosen and installed their choice of water supply

technology and their role becomes convincing the village to take care of

something that was essentially imposed upon them. By offering options it is

38

Table 8. Manual Pump Comparisons DRHE – Mopti, 2003

Pump Type

Criteria India-Mali Mark II Vergnet

Pump Mechanism Piston Diaphragm

Type of Pump Hand pump Foot pump

Maximum Design Depth >100 meters >100 meters

Pump Durability Very robust Less robust

Ease of Maintenance

Difficult (trained technician) Easy (pump users)

Annual Maintenance Cost ~35,000 FCFA ~25,000 FCFA

Replacement Parts Replace used pump parts once per year

Replace used pumps parts once every 1-2 years

Flow Rate (peak) High Moderate

Initial/Replacement Cost 2,500,000 FCFA 1,100,000 FCFA

more likely that the chosen type of water supply technology will show benefits

in terms of the community values, not just water quality improvements that the

donor agencies typically stress, but also convenience, time savings, improved

access, etc. (Carter et al. 1993, Kendie 1992, Mu et al. 1990). This type of

approach requires a high degree of institutional flexibility on behalf of the

implementing and donor agencies in order that they remain capable of

responding adeptly to the diverse needs of their client villages. In the case of

the World Vision approach in the WAWI project, the choice-of-technology

decisions are predetermined by the donor agency and therefore solely reflect

39

the preferences of the implementing agency, inherently ignoring the actual

village preferences. As long as choice-of-technology decisions are

predetermined and influenced in such a way by the implementing agency, the

community demands cannot be adequately met (Narayan 1995). If large-

diameter wells, for example, are not considered to be an appropriate water

supply technology and therefore removed by the implementing or donor

agencies from the list of possible options, community involvement in choice-of-

technology decisions will be marginalized and subsequent non-sustainability

issues may result.

Manual Pumps as a Centerpiece of Rural Water Supply Development

Considering the historically poor performance of manual pumps in the

region of study, it may be worth re-examining the appropriateness of manual

pumps in general. Village size may prove to be the single most important

parameter to consider when determining the appropriateness of manual

pumps. By using the maximum observed pumping rate in Yadianga (14.5

liters/minute) and limiting pump use to daylight hours, it can be found that it

would be necessary to have eight (8) properly functioning pumps to

adequately serve the human population of Yadianga (pop. 2,473, est. 2001).

This estimate ignores the livestock requirement and considering that the

estimated population of Yadianga in 2004 was 3,200 residents, the minimum

number of manual pumps required to meet the human needs would increase

to ten (10) and would subsequently increase incrementally with every ~300

new residents. In this case, it can be seen that manual pumps may not be a

feasible alternative. Manual pumps may have their place in meeting the needs

of a small community (<500 residents) or in meeting the immediate short-term

40

demands of a larger community during a time of crisis. However, manual

pumps may not be the most appropriate choice of technology to put forth as a

focal piece of sustainable rural development, but rather should be seen as one

among a range of strategic options based on technological, ecological and

social fit.

Health: Water Availability and Water Quality

The latest development philosophy for safe and potable water sources,

such as boreholes equipped with manual pumps, presupposes that water

quality is more important than water quantity. This view seems to be in

opposition to that of a large proportion of the population in the region of study,

as well as to much of the recent research (Nyong and Kanaroglou 2001,

Cairncross 2003) which has shown that improvements in water quality alone

are not sufficient, and that ready access to water and the resulting increases in

the quantity used for hygiene can have a greater impact on health than water

quality improvements. Village councils, local mayors, World Vision staff and

community members (both men and women) in the villages of study indicated

that if they had access to more water, rather than cleaner water, then they

would be able to practice better hygiene than is possible in their current limited

water supply situation. In a region like the district of Koro, which is extremely

water scarce, the simple provision of an adequate supply of daily water is a

struggle for much of the population. Considering the water scarcity situation

and the established notion that an adequate water supply is more beneficial to

the health of the communities than just the provision of a safe and potable

water supply, it seems reasonable that meeting this initial deficiency in water

supply should be the first priority. Once a permanent, sustainable source of

41

water is provided to meet the local demands, efforts can be realistically

focused on source water quality improvements.

Until the communities are at a stage where they can invest in source water

quality improvements, it is in their interest to keep the available water as

potable as possible. One technique being promoted by the NGO and local

government agencies is the use of bleach in the water jars as a point-of-use

disinfectant. The success of these efforts will, in large part, be determined by

the hygiene practices of the communities, as the effectiveness of bleach is not

guaranteed. Evidence suggests that disinfection with chlorine or bleach is

only partially effective in water having turbidity values greater than 30 NTU

(WHO 2004). Most well water and pump water exceed this turbidity criterion,

and the effectiveness of using bleach in such waters could be much less

effective than desired. In highly turbid water, disinfection cannot replace

filtration and relying solely upon point-of-use bleaching may not be effective.

The introduction of bleach as a disinfectant may (in the absence of community

education programs) in fact have the unintended and undesirable effect of

convincing many residents that hygiene is no longer important, because the

water has been disinfected by bleach and that re-contamination is no longer

possible.

Hygiene and Sanitation

Hygiene improvement and the construction of adequate sanitation facilities

have been shown to play a more essential role in improving the health of the

local population than source water quality improvements alone (Brikké and

Bredero 2003, Gasana et al. 2002, Van Derslice and Briscoe 1995). Most

diarrhea is infectious in origin and spreads from person to person, especially

42

when personal hygiene is poor (Gasana et al. 2002). Considering that

benefits from water quality improvements at the source are minimized by a

deterioration of water quality from the source to the point of use (Trevett et al.

2004, Wright et al. 2004, Genthe et al. 1997), it is important to look at current

attempts to improve local water handling and storage methods. This study

looked at the local efforts to encourage village residents to cover their

household water jars. Success was much more frequent in villages that had

been given training and education on the topic than in those villages that had

not received similar training. However, studies have shown that covering the

water jar does not appear to have any effect on the bacteriological water

quality (Trevett et al. 2004, Lindskog and Lindskog 1988). The more important

factor may be the amount of contamination that results from the continual

dipping of the drinking cup and some part of the hand into the water jar.

Several studies have found that water quality is better from containers

designed to prevent hand-water contact, as in the case of a water jar fitted

with a tap (Roberts et al. 2001, VanDerslice and Briscoe 1993, Empereur-

Bissonnet et al. 1992). Given the inevitable hand-water contact that exists in

every community in the Koro district, hand washing can be seen as a crucial

practice that is needed to maintain clean water in the jars. This will require

community education efforts and it should be noted that, as World Vision staff

pointed out, these efforts can only be successful if the most basic condition of

a permanent and adequate supply of water is being met in the village. Efforts

to improve hand washing and other hygiene practices may be greatly

compromised if this most basic condition is not met.

43

Long-term Sustainability of Groundwater Resources in the Koro District

As a final point of discussion, the issue of overall sustainability of the

groundwater resources in the Koro district should be addressed. Seasonal

fluctuations in the large-diameter wells suggest that some degree of local

recharge is taking place. The amount of drawdown over time of the aquifers

was estimated by the DNHE as being on the order of 5 mm per year, but there

is not enough available data to accurately quantify the annual drawdown.

However, due to the absence of large-scale agricultural or industrial

extractions of groundwater in the region, it can be assumed that the annual

local recharge and the longer term recharge from the cliffs of the falaises is

sufficient to meet rural domestic and livestock needs for the near future. The

most important groundwater extraction occurs in Pomorodoudiou to supply the

city of Koro (pop. 9,300, est. 2001). To date, the source aquifer has been able

to satisfy the demands of the growing urban population in Koro, but concerns

over the viability and longevity of the aquifer were expressed by the local

mayor’s office and the residents of Koro, and this is something that needs to

be monitored and researched further.

44

CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION

This research has contributed insight into the complex nature of the rural

water supply situation in the Koro region of Mali. Choice-of-technology

preferences vary according to several factors including local perception of

water scarcity, individual water use requirements, and previous experience

with various technologies. Sustainability of various types of water supply

infrastructure is dependent upon the degree to which the technology

corresponds to the needs of the local community and the community’s ability

to maintain and repair it over time. Considering the poor state of the manual

pumps observed in the district of Koro, it is apparent that efforts need to be

made to ameliorate the situation. Learning from previous development

projects, the latest approaches address the problems of the limited availability

of spare parts, the absence of trained technicians at the local level and the

limited role of women in the pump management scheme. Dedicating more

time and resources to the maintenance and management aspects of rural

water supply development is a positive action and should help to improve

sustainability of newly installed water supply infrastructure. However, the

continued lack of community involvement in the decision-making phase of

water supply development projects, deeply entrenched patriarchal structures

that continue to constrain leadership and decision-making participation of

women and minorities, principal stakeholders in water use, and the potentially

global inappropriateness of manual pumps as a sustainable long-term option

remain to be addressed.

Recent studies have shown that sustainability of water supply projects

improves when communities are allowed to take a central role during all

45

stages of the project, including design and planning (Mangin 1991, Williams

1998, Bah 1992). Limited success of many such projects is due to the

communication gap between the local communities and the project planners,

as well as the over-emphasis among implementing agencies upon population

coverage rather than a clear focus on facility design and system support in

cooperation with local institutions to ensure long-term functioning and use of

the water supply infrastructure (Chandler 1989). Community involvement

should include a complete and total transfer of information from all of the

parties involved to ensure that tradeoffs are adequately explained and

decisions can be made based on the fullest possible set of data available at

the time. In order for the array of choice-of-technology options to be as

inclusive as possible, institutional flexibility on behalf of the funding agencies,

the implementing agencies, and the community members necessarily needs to

exist.

The need for this type of collaborative, participatory project planning has in

some ways been circumvented by current development philosophy that argues

that the community’s willing contribution of financial resources to a project

adequately demonstrates their preference for the selected technology.

However, due to the water scarce geographical context in which these

communities find themselves, this may not necessarily be the case. In these

communities, community leaders are for all practical purposes obligated to

financially contribute to any type of water supply project, manual pumps or

otherwise, that is made available to the community. Given that the

implementing agencies typically offer only one technological option, the

community’s financial contribution does not necessarily reflect their preference

for the selected technology but rather reiterates the fact that they live in a

46

water scarce region and are willing to contribute financially, even if this is a

significant sacrifice on their part, to any project that may help them ensure

access to their water resources.

The reluctance of many funding agencies to consider the large-diameter

well as a suitable component of rural water supply development limits the

number of options available to the implementing agencies and communities

alike. This reluctance is based on the fact that large-diameter well water is not

considered to be potable by the international funding agencies as it is typically

not as free of bacteria as water from a closed source such as a manual pump.

However, recent evidence continues to show that hygiene practice and

adequate sanitation facilities are of equal importance as source water quality

in improving the health of the local population (Brikké and Bredero 2003,

Gasana et al. 2002, Van Derslice and Briscoe 1995). Ready access to water

and the resulting increases in the quantity used for hygiene can have a greater

impact on health than water quality improvements alone (Nyong and

Kanaroglou 2001, Cairncross 2003). These findings, along with the significant

livestock water needs of the district, suggest that the most elemental objective

should be to provide easy access to an adequate supply of water, rather than

limited access to a more potable source of water. Considering the poor state

and low flow rates of the manual pumps in the district, it does not seem likely

that a water supply development project focusing on hand pumps will prove to

be a sustainable, long-term solution. Depending on the village, large-diameter

wells or a large-scale solar pumping system may be considered to be the

sustainable and preferred choice-of-technology option to provide access to an

adequate supply of water. In the case of WAWI, one step that the donor

agency could make, would be to allow World Vision more flexibility in choosing

47

the type of water supply infrastructure that they can provide, which in turn will

allow World Vision to offer the communities a real choice in the choice-of-

technology decision making process.

Regardless of the community’s technological choice, the importance of

hygiene and sanitation will need to be continually emphasized in an effort to

reduce the occurrence of contamination from the point-of-collection to the

point-of-use. Tangible village-wide health improvements are difficult to

achieve and the interdependence of source water quality, hygiene practice,

sanitation facilities and adequate water supply cannot be ignored. A recent

study in Rwanda has concluded that, “there is no best way to achieve health

improvements, except that it must be by the people themselves. Interventions

in water supply and sanitation infrastructure, together with hygiene education

and the extension of primary health care services, need to be implemented

within an integrated multidisciplinary framework.” (Gasana et al. 2002, 87)

Once again, it can be seen that the community members themselves are

placed at the forefront of this multidisciplinary effort. In the water scarce

district of Koro, community members, NGO regional managers, field staff and

government officials all stress the importance of permanent access to an

adequate supply of water stating that this will create the conditions to improve

hygiene and eventually improve the health of the community. If these multiple

voices can be heard and if the funding and implementing agencies are able to

respond to these voices, sustainability of water supply development projects

and their positive impact on the health of the community should improve.

48

APPENDIX A PUMP LOCATIONS AND SPECIFICATIONS

Tabl

e 9.

Pum

p In

vent

ory

Res

ults

and

Spe

cific

atio

ns, J

une

2004

.

UP

MV

ergn

etIn

dia-

Mal

iU

PM

Ver

gnet

Indi

a-M

ali

Am

14.1

71-2

.928

01

0-

1/1

--

--

Bar

gou

13.9

40-2

.967

10

00/

1-

--

6387

Ben

ebou

rou

14.1

66-3

.024

00

1-

-1/

1-

--

Ben

iban

a14

.105

-3.1

641

00

0/1

--

-34

115

Dan

adou

ngou

rou

14.1

89-3

.064

00

0-

--

Sol

ar-

-D

anaN

a14

.180

-3.0

501

00

0/1

--

--

-D

anga

tene

14.2

35-2

.972

20

32/

2-

3/3

--

-D

egue

bom

bo13

.960

-3.1

501

00

1/1

--

-9

103

Dom

oni

14.2

80-2

.994

10

00/

1-

--

--

Doy

el14

.108

-3.0

161

00

0/1

--

--

-G

akou

13.6

92-2

.982

10

00/

1-

--

--

Gni

ni14

.016

-3.1

360

00

--

-D

iese

l20

58G

ouifa

l14

.118

-3.1

670

20

-2/

2-

--

-K

iniO

godo

urou

13.9

58-3

.089

00

0-

--

Die

sel

--

Kiri

13.9

70-3

.028

10

00/

1-

-D

iese

l-

-K

oro

14.0

64-3

.079

00

0-

--

Die

sel

--

Lere

14.2

11-3

.065

10

01/

1-

--

--

Ogo

dour

ouko

ro14

.008

-3.0

281

00

0/1

--

--

-O

mo

14.1

67-2

.981

01

0-

1/1

-S

olar

7110

3O

sodo

urou

14.1

11-2

.967

01

0-

0/1

--

--

Pom

orod

oudi

ou14

.155

-3.1

761

00

0/1

--

Die

sel

3750

Pon

gono

13.9

04-3

.024

01

0-

1/1

--

--

Sad

iour

ou14

.072

-3.0

042

00

0/2

--

--

-S

algo

l Ber

ko14

.034

-3.1

770

10

-1/

1-

--

-S

egue

beng

ou14

.151

-3.0

770

01

--

0/1

--

-Ti

na14

.128

-3.2

093

00

0/3

--

-33

53To

rou

14.2

17-2

.990

00

2-

-2/

2-

--

Yad

iang

a14

.070

-3.1

900

04

--

0/4

-25

82Y

ogob

enew

e13

.846

-3.1

561

00

0/1

--

-56

100

Zon

13.8

53-3

.124

20

00/

2-

--

5485Max

D

epth

(m)

Exi

stin

g M

anua

l Pum

psP

umps

In-U

seO

ther

P

umps

Vill

age

Lat

(deg

)Lo

ng

(deg

)A

vg S

tatic

Le

vel (

m)

49

50

APPENDIX B WATER QUALITY ANALYSES

Water Quality Testing Results (Bacteriological Analysis)

To determine the effect of water storage behavior on household water

quality, a bacteriological analysis was performed by the DNHE on seven

samples taken from various source waters (hand pumps, large-diameter wells)

at the points-of-collection and at the points-of-use (Table 10). Visual

inspection of the well water at the time of sampling suggested that total

suspended solids content was much higher than for the pump water. After

analysis, visual inspection of the testing plates representing the wells found

that they were much more densely colonized by non-coliform colonies than the

plates from the pump samples. Most notably, the plates representing the

water jars filled with well water had much denser bacterial colonies than the

plates representing the well itself. This suggests that the conditions inside the

water jars may be favorable for certain bacteriological growth and further

testing may provide important insight into this issue.

The coliform analysis found that no fecal coliforms were found to be

present in any of the samples. No total coliforms were found to be present in

the samples taken from the large-diameter well (okorokana) or the water jars

filled with water from the same well. Total coliforms were however found to be

present in the water taken from the Vergnet foot pump and in one of the water

jars filled with this water. The levels were on the order of 20 colonies per 100

mL and the water from all samples was deemed by the DNHE to be of an

acceptable quality (Eau de qualité bactériologique acceptable).

51

Table 10. Bacteriological Analysis of Source and Household Water Samples, April 2004

DNHE ref #

Origin of Water

Description of Sample

Total Coliforms

Fecal Coliforms Comments

20 well (okorokana)

drinking cup -

uncovered water jar

0 0

~100% covered w/ red colonies, very dense and large

21 okorokana

drinking cup -

covered water jar

0 0

~100% covered w/ red colonies dense, small diameter

22 okorokana

drinking cup -

covered water jar

0 0

~100% covered w/ red colonies dense, small diameter

23 okorokana puisette from the

well 0 0

least dense of the well samples. markedly so. small diameter

24 pump directly from the

pump 22 0

22 green colonies (~10% coverage) + few large red colonies

25 pump

drinking cup -

covered water jar

0 0 1/4 as many red colonies as sample 24

26 pump

drinking cup -

covered water jar

21 0

similar to 25 but with 21 green colonies as well

52

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