Project Uisce Beatha
The Far North of Cameroon had its worst rainy season for over 20 years in 2010. One storm alone left 5,000 homeless and killed 14 people in Maga. Flooding was widespread, many houses collapsed, crops were devastated and diseases were rampant. In addition to malaria and bilharzia, typhoid and other water-borne diseases, there was a serious outbreak of cholera. The local people, the majority of whom live below the povery threshold of $1 per day, have little capacity for reconstruction or for paying for treatment when ill. The state, the local council and international organisations such as the UN’s UNICEF and FAO have given valuable support but major problems remain, the most important of which is access to clean water.
Virtually the whole population of 85,000 people depends on “forages” for clean water. A forage is an enclosed deep well (over 50 metres deep in some cases) with a manual pump. Maga county has 149 forages but around one-third are currently not working and nearly all are in need of repair. If there is no forage, or if the local forage is not working, people drink water from open wells, rivers, irrigation channels, lakes or even stagnant ponds. Flood waters carry human and animal excrement, fertilisers, weed-killers and general rubbish into all of these in the rainy season each year. There are almost no toilets and people frequently relieve themselves in the proximity of shallow open wells, thus transmitting diseases such as cholera. The quality of the water which many people drink is appalling. I could find no reliable statistics but while I was in Maga there were numerous illnesses and several deaths from water-borne diseases among the families of my friends and colleagues.
It is estimated that Maga needs an additional 190 forages but constructing a new forage costs over ten times the cost of repairing an existing forage so clearly the problem of fixing the forages which are not working, and on-going maintenance of all forages, should be tackled first. The state has launched a campaign to persuade villagers to construct latrines with their own resources and is providing funds to repair six forages but the cost of repairing the remaining forages far exceeds the villagers’ means in most cases.
I have recently come home to Ireland and do not plan to return to work in Cameroon but this is one problem that I do not want to walk away from. Before leaving Maga I launched Project Uisce Beatha to repair as many of the broken forages as possible before June, when the next rainy season is likely to start, and I got agreement from the local council that it will take responsibility for maintenance of forages in the future. Repairing all the forages that are currently broken and doing initial preventive maintenance on the others is estimated to cost €42,000 (including 15% contingency). This is an appreciable sum but the benefit will be enormous since the project will materially benefit the health of over 40,000 people, including a high proportion of children who are the most vulnerable to water-borne diseases. It is a goal worth striving for, and given the urgency of the situation I have provided funds (including some left over from previous donations from my friends in Ireland) to fix the 20 forages where the need is greatest. After allowing for this, for villagers’ contributions and the undertaking by the state to fix a small number of forages, €30,500 remains to be found. There are 15 forages which would be particularly difficult to repair and which would cost an estimated €13,000 and I have made it clear that it is unlikely that funding will be found for these. If these are omitted or deferred, the target reduces to €17,500 and the greater part of the benefit will still be achieved. Any contribution that you can make, however small, would be most welcome. The average cost of repairing a forage is €300, ranging from €50 to €900, but every €1 donated will materially improve a person's health and possibly save their life.
To gear up for on-going maintenance after the pumps which are currently defective have been repaired, the council is recruiting a technician who will visit each village once a month from June to inspect the forages, do preventive maintenance and do major repairs where necessary. Monthly contributions by villagers will be used to pay for replacement parts and the technician’s costs. The model which I have proposed is like medical insurance, where all contributions are put in a common account administered by the local council which will be used to meet the costs of repairing whatever forages are in need of repair in the future. This is different from the model used up to now, where each forage had its own account. In many cases these accounts proved insufficient on breakdown, and in cases where contributions would have needed to be made for a further number of years to pay for the repairs the forages tended to be abandoned. To the best of my knowledge this is the first time that an insurance type approach is being adopted in Cameroon. The common account has some other practical advantages. It can be monitored more rigorously to prevent individuals in the forage management committees from diverting the money collected to their own personal use, as frequently happened in the past. It will also help with management of the repair process where in the past some technicians disappeared with the money collected and did not carry out the required repairs.
Before leaving Maga I did seminars for the councillors and for the village chiefs to get their buy-in to the proposals. A local development organisation, ACEEN which has extensive experience in forage maintenance, backed by a Swiss NGO, International Project Aid, agreed to do an initial inspection of all the forages detailing and estimating the cost of the required repairs. They have also done training for two people who are currently doing “sensibilisation” in the villages. This consists of ensuring that there is a management committee for each forage, that they are effectively managing the use of the forage, that they are collecting usage charges to enable them to pay their contributions to the council and also that villagers follow good hygiene practices. Before scheduling the repairs to a forage under Project Uisce Beatha the sensibilisation team must confirm that they are happy with the management committee and the management committee must contribute 10% of the cost of the replacement parts.
It is sometimes argued that water is a human right and that all should have free access to it. Unfortunately the history of water projects in Cameroon indicates that people do not appreciate free water. Indeed in some cases where forages were provided free and where there were no charges for usage, villagers neglected them and after just a few years as many as 90% of the forages were no longer working. In any event, my funds are limited and the council’s funds are extremely limited. Hence in order to motivate them to look after their forages, in the project to repair the forages which are already defective and also in the on-going maintenance by the council, the management committees will be asked to pay a percentage of the cost of the replacement parts.
Programme to Provide Safe Drinking Water in Maga
Project Uisce Beatha forms part of a larger programme to provide acess to clean water in Maga. There are three towns in the county, Maga town, Pouss and Guirvidig. Maga town has piped water but the number of users is very small. A project to bring piped water to Pouss has been approved and funding has been obtained for it. With the help of donations from my friends, I brought teams of engineers and other experts to Gurividig to plan and estimate a project to bring piped water to that town. The council is currently looking for state or other funding for this project. Even if the three towns have piped water, it is unlikely that it will serve more than 5,000 people in the short term. Thus 80,000 people will remain to be served by forages. This gives a ratio of over 500 per forage, over double the number of users recommended by the UN. As mentioned above, it is estimated that around 190 new forages will be needed at a cost of between €5,000 and €10,000 each, depending on the terrain. Thus a project costing around €1.5 million would be needed to provide the new forages. In the following programme, Project Uisce Beatha consists of steps 3, 4 and 5.
Programme to provide safe drinking water to Maga’s population:
1. Implement the project to bring piped water to Pouss.
2. Get funding and implement the project to bring piped water to Guirvidig.
3. Sensibilise the villagers on the need for latrines and for good management of forages.
4. Repair the forages which are not currently functional.
5. Do initial preventive maintenance on the forages which are currently defective though functional.
6. Introduce an on-going programme to repair the forages which break down in the future.
7. Get funding to build 190 new forages.
If any person or organisation would like to help with Project Uisce Beatha or with other elements of the programme, please make contact in the first instance by sending an email (in English or French) to the council at communedemaga@gmail.com.
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