Increasing Children's Access to Safe Drinking Water Through Low-cost Technologies in Mali

This 13-page case study shares Oxfam GB's experience of working in partnership with local authorities, communities, and other organisations to provide water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities to villages and schools, using low-cost water technologies. In Mali, a pilot project has introduced the rope pump - a new, low-cost, easy-to-maintain type of technology. According to Oxfam GB, this technology has increased access to water and contributed to an increase in enrolment and better child health. As well as providing clean drinking water and toilet facilities in schools, the project carried out public health campaigns, alongside campaigns to promote positive attitudes around girls attending school, to raise people’s awareness about the importance of good hygiene in reducing rates of illness.

Since 2007, Oxfam’s programme in the Bourem district has consisted of different components designed to improve access to quality essential services, especially education and WASH facilities for girls in intervention areas. They worked with Enterprise Works, an international non-government organisation (NGO) with experience of supplying low-cost technologies in Niger, to train drilling teams and committees to care for the infrastructure.

Along with maintenance and care of the infrastructure, the project trained teachers, community health workers, and pupils, and ran special campaigns to raise awareness of the importance of good hygiene. This was designed to enable children to act as agents of change in their families and communities. Hygiene clubs were set up in all schools and members were trained to promote good hygiene practices, and to help people understand how to keep themselves and their environment healthy and hygienic. Schools were given hygiene kits (including drinking cups, bins, and brooms) to help them keep the water points, classrooms, schoolyards, and latrines clean.

The project provided support to mothers’ associations, and helped to set up girls' clubs in schools. Members received training and started campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of girls going to school, linking in with campaigns around good hygiene. They met with the school management committees to discuss issues and problems, and to ensure that school development plans address the needs of female pupils. Education advisers arranged for experts to visit the schools and hold discussions with teachers and parents about key issues, such as why parents should be more involved in their children's education. The campaign to promote girls' education used radio broadcasts that were aired daily, reaching an estimated audience of 48,000 people. There were also school competitions with prizes, cookery demonstrations, and drama groups, and a local artist helped to design posters and other materials to publicise the campaign's key messages.

According to the brief, a key part of Oxfam’s work in Mali is advocating at local, regional, and national levels so that the low-cost water technology used by the project in Bourem can be included in the government’s National Water Development Strategy. A campaign was organised to inform local communities and the local and national authorities about the new water supply technology. In addition, flyers, posters, and information papers were produced and disseminated to let villagers know about the new rope pumps, and video production specialists made short films about the technology.

According to the brief, since 2007, the project has installed 90 water points in schools and villages in Bourem district and has rehabilitated 12 existing water points. Almost all of the water points are low-cost, hand-drilled boreholes, equipped with rope and washer pumps. More than 1,900 school children (933 of them girls) and 21,000 people in 12 villages now have access to clean water. It is hoped another 60 low-cost water points can be installed over the next four years. In February 2009, a Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) survey was carried out to assess whether the programme had been able to reduce the risk of malnutrition of children aged from 0 to 5 years through improved access to potable water and public health promotion at the community level. Compared with data from the previous year, the survey showed a notable reduction in cases of diarrhoea: In 2008, 63% of households surveyed had sick children in the preceding two weeks, but this figure had fallen to 50% a year later. The overall incidence of diarrhoea for children under five (the most vulnerable group) has also shown a tendency to decrease.