Water for Life: Integrated Program in the Sahel, Niger
Handdigging a well in Maito village. Photo: NAGARTA |
Church World Service is working with partner, NAGARTA, on an Integrated Water Development Program in the Sahel. The Sahel region includes the West African countries of Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, Cape Verde, Mauritania, Chad, and Guinea Bissau. At least 55 million people live in the region. The Sahel is a region of unpredictable rainfall patterns, which has witnessed some of Africa’s most serious climate-induced food shortages, including the famines of 1972-74, 1984-85, and the most recent crisis seen in 2005. Over the last 35 years over 250,000 drought-related human fatalities have occurred throughout the Sahel. More localized drought events have also affected several areas over the years, with countries such as Burkina Faso and Niger having serious chronic food crisis on average one out of every three years since 1984 (UN-IRIN).
The goal of the project is to create a model community-based water development program that can be replicated by other organizations and government structures, as well as promoted within national, regional, and global advocacy networks.
The villages in this project have insufficient access to potable water. Village women and children are responsible for fetching water for the household, along with other domestic duties, and walk miles each day in search of water – water that may carry waterborne diseases.
The focus for this first-year (FY 2007) pilot program in Niger includes working to improve availability and access to clean drinking water for some 465 households, and providing access to water for livestock and gardening. The project is in the village of Maito, in southeastern Niger -- some 560 miles east of the capital, Niamey.
NAGARTA was created in 2001, its mission to contribute to the improvement in the living conditions of Niger's people. Nagarta is a Housa word meaning "welfare." NAGARTA has experience in primary school education, village water supply development, reforestation, soil recovery, environmental education, cereal bank creation, food security and emergency food support (including 2005 famine response).
Support for Church World Service helps make this program possible.
Updated 3/14/07
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