|
 The system, in which water is collected in a large dam built amid
the region's hills and piped to a series of underground community
wells, aims to cut the distance women need to walk to collect water
and improve access to safe water.
“Scarcity of potable water in this area has been a major problem
because of the hilly but excessively dry landscape. That is why
government thought it imperative to invest in this water collection
and supply (system using) solar energy," said Emmanuel Nganou
Djoumessi, Cameroon’s Ministry of Econony, Planning and Regional
Development during a recent visit.
Cameroon’s National Water Company, SNEC, supplies water only to
Mokolo, the main town in Diamare division. That means only about 20
percent of people in the division have access to potable drinking
water, Nganou said.
The new system, however, now has helped bring clean drinking water
within the reach of 80 percent of people in the division, he said.
The project uses a 2,500 cubic meter collecting dam in the hills to
store water. Solar power is then used to pump water from the dam and
into pipes leading downhill to six neighboring villages including
Mindif, said project engineer Jorel Kom.
In the villages, over 40 water storage containers collect the
supplied water, which can then be pumped into household containers
using a low-maintenance hand pump, he said.
Constructed at a cost of over 788 million CFA ($1.3 million) from
the country’s public investment budget, the project is transforming
life in a region increasingly struggling with erratic rainfall and
drying groundwater supplies, local people say.
HELP FOR WOMEN
Bouma Ibrahim, 60, a farmer in Mindif village, called the project a
huge help to women who previously had to walk long distances to find
water.
“This water supply project, I believe, is the answer to our prayers
to Allah because our women and girls, whose role it is to fetch
water, had to travel long distances under the scorching heat of the
sun in search of water. This is behind us now," he said.
Women in the area, who brew and sell a local millet beer called “Bil
Bil”, say better access to water has improved their business
prospects.
“My business now attracts more customers who no longer doubt the
source of water used for production," said Adjidja Alim, one of the
brewers.
The isolated village of Mindif depends on farming and raising
animals, and both have been hit by worsening drought, local people
said. But the success of the initial water supply project raises the
possibility that further projects could be constructed to store
water for irrigation purposes, said Essimi Menye, Cameroon’s
Minister of Agriculture.
“With this project, many irrigation schemes for both smallholder and
large-scale farming are now envisaged. We are ready to support such
initiatives to boost agriculture in the Far North," he said.
[to top of second column] |
Agriculture employs 70 percent of the workforce in Cameroon, and
provides 42 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and 30
percent of its export revenue, according to government statistics.
Health experts say an improve supply of portable water in Far North
Cameroon could also help reduce a rising series of disease outbreaks
in the region over the past three years.
Since 2012, cholera outbreaks have raged regularly in the region,
affecting primarily children and their mothers. A 2013 outbreak had
a fatality rate of over 7 percent, according to UNICEF, and spread
to neighbouring countries including Chad, Central African Republic,
Nigeria and Niger.
Many of the affected areas had already been weakened by food
shortages and a lack of health care and sanitation facilities.
“Apart from water scarcity and poor sanitation, insecurity with Boko
Haram killings has aggravated poverty in the Far North,
necessitating combined efforts to bail the population out," Felicite
Tchbindat a UNICEF Cameroon country representative told reporters
during a visit to the region late last year.
Pressure on the region’s resources has climbed with the influx of
Nigerian refugees fleeing clashes in northeast Nigeria between
regional military forces and Boko Haram insurgents.
According to a March report from the U.N. High Commission on
Refugees, Cameroon's Far North region now hosts more than 16,000
Nigerian refugees.
Cameroon’s government says that in partnership with development
organisations it plans to construct over 1,000 borehole wells to
supply water in the Far North region. Each well drilled in the
region costs about 8 million CFA ($16,300), according to Parfait
Ndeme, an engineer at the Ministry of Water and Energy.
(Reporting by Elias Ntungwe Ngalame; editing by Laurie Goering)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
