Mali Project Details

Peri-urban water supply and sanitation project in Nafadji region, Bamako, Mali

This project takes place in conjunction with local partner, JIGI, in Nafadji, the sprawling slum area around the perimeter of Mali’s capital city, Bamako. Unplanned development means that poor communities living in this area have little or no infrastructure. In 2003 it was estimated that 10,000 were living in this area, and less than 50% had access to safe water, under 15% had access to sanitation and the school was completely lacking in water and sanitation facilities.

WaterAid Mali selected this area to work with as it is amongst the poorest in the whole region and in fact the Nafadji project has been used as a case study in a WaterAid regional advocacy workshop held in Ougadougou, as an example for the whole West Africa region of working with the very poorest in society.

Achievements for the year 2004/5
Outputs for the financial year for this project include:
- the construction of five standpipes to supply water
- the construction of 64 household latrines
- the construction of 55 household compost pits to improve environmental conditions by safe disposal of all types of household waste
- the construction of one school sanitation block.

WaterAid Mali undertook some surveys in the areas in which it worked, which concluded that 96% of the populations targeted over the year were using latrines.

All communities have been trained in proper care and maintenance of water and sanitation facilities, and received sensitisation in key hygiene messages, such as handwashing at critical times, for example before food preparation. This area has an Arabo-Islamic culture, so it is easier to make this intervention message than in some other areas, therefore, WaterAid Mali and partner JIGI were delighted that a fantastic 99% of those surveyed are now practising hand washing before eating. This is one of the most vital behaviours to practice, however, JIGI and WaterAid Mali discovered that there was a difficulty getting populations to use soap because of the cost in the region. Therefore, it was decided to look at possibilities of training local women in soap manufacturing. This would have the double benefit of enabling the community to promote hand washing with soap at a lower cost, as well as creating and income generation activity for local people.

WaterAid Mali and JIGI have also had great success with a new scheme to encourage women to use covered buckets to fetch water. This improves the quality of drinking water and reduces disease by reducing the possibility of contamination of water whilst being transported from the water source to the home. A covered carrying vessel is not only an important part of the water supply chain, but it also means less water is spilt on the journey. This process also used a revolving credit scheme to help poor women get access to appropriate buckets. Further observed behaviour changes over the course of the year include an increase from 38% to 66% of women cleaning their water storage containers with soap. These sorts of behaviour changes can be very hard to achieve, but all contribute to reducing the prevalence of water-related disease, and improving people’s health and quality of life.

This project will have brought safe water to an estimated 2,500 people and sanitation to 640. The overall cost of the project was $59,153, of which Blue Planet Run contributed $15,616.