Burkina Faso

Description of the project

People of Burkina Faso, just like population of other countries of the west Sahara and Sub-Sahara region suffer from lack of drinking water during almost whole year. Also the inhabitants of the Toma town, the capital of Nayala province, used to have problems with insufficient quantity and quality of drinking water. The wet period lasts only four months and within the rest of the year the average temperature exceeds 35°C and there is an enormous evaporation there. Local people don't’ have a single source of safe potable water within the walking distance. Locals used to get drinking water only from the underground sources, such as traditional dug wells of various depths and diameters, mostly un-protected against contamination from domestic animals. A few deeper wells with simple manual pump system are used as well. However, more than a half of these wells were out of order due to mechanical defects on the pumping equipment and due to bad conditions of the building constructions.
An international project has been implemented since July 2007 till the end of 2007, which was financed by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic within its Official Development Assistance (ODA) and partially by a government institution in the recipient country, National Office of Water and Sanitation (ONEA).  The project was focused on strengthening of drinking water capacity in Toma, and followed previous Czech ODA activities realized in the area.
In co-operation with the project partner, the Poyry Environment Inc. (formerly Aquatis Inc.), detailed drawings and project documentations were elaborated. The projects main objectives were connection of new water sources Toma-north to the treated water elevated storage tank through a new delivery pipeline. Further, the new pumping system for the newly constructed technical service house was put into the operation by the locals in the Toma-north water source. Based on best environmental practice approach, local suppliers of the individual facilities such as pumps, tubes and others have been arranged through local companies.
Thanks to the implementation of the project, the majority of inhabitants have instant un-interrupted approach to safe drinking water,  with low maintenance and operation costs.

Type of services provided

• Management of the project
• Collection of data
• Assistance during projecting period
• Projecting (in co.-operation with Poyry Inc.)
• Feasibility study on wastewater collection and treatment 
• Education and training of local employees
• Support to the local municipality in the area of modern environmental technologies