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DEVELOPMENT-SENEGAL: Water Shortages Hit Women the Most
By Adel Arab
DAKAR, Apr 1, 2003 (IPS) - Balancing a large bucket of water on her head, Fatou
Sarr, a 20-year-old domestic, reflects the plight of hundreds of thousands
of women in Senegal who spend hours searching for clean water everyday.
"I cover several kilometres on foot - several times a day - to fetch
water for my employer. It's really tiring," complains the young woman from
Medina, a working-class neighbourhood of Dakar, the capital of Senegal.
"Only 56 percent of rural and 78 percent of urban households have clean
drinking water in Senegal,'' says Ousmane Masseck Ndiaye, the minister of
tourism.
Alimatou Diouf, a housewife in Dakar, says she is still forced to search
for clean water everyday, despite the promises made by politicians during
the World Water Day, which was celebrated on Mar 23.
''Sometimes, the water is rusty and full of sand,'' says Diouf.
''The shortage and the poor quality of water are due to a lack of
infrastructures and antiquated state of pipes,'' explains Badian Nfally of
the Dakar-based Urban Participatory Development programme, a
non-governmental organisation (NGO).
Pape Ndiack Sall of the state-owned water company, La Senegalaise des
Eaux (SDE), says the water shortage in Senegal is also caused by ''pipe
bursting".
Water shortages become more pronounced during the winter. Because of the
heat, there is a spike in electricity use, which causes outages. ''If the
electricity stops, so do the pumps, and the water along with it," explains
Sall.
Customers also complain about the high water bills. ''My water bills are
extremely high, sometimes as much as 80,000 CFA (about 133 U.S. dollars) a
month, which is extraordinary,'' complains Khady Diagne of Point E, a suburb
of Dakar. ''My sister lives in Guediawaye, a working-class neighbourhood,
and yet she pays only about 10,000 CFA (about 16.7 US dollars) a month,''
she says.
Nfally believes the answer to the urban water shortage lies is
decentralisation. ''Pumping stations should be built for each Senegalese
town,'' he suggests.
Water shortage is even more acute in rural areas where drought and
climactic uncertainties are rife.
Mont Rolland, 70 kilometres from Dakar, used to be famous for its mineral
springs. Today, villagers need to drill as deep as 80 metres to pump water.
The village's groundwater was seriously depleted by over-extraction by the
mineral water company, which closed its doors recently.
Almost 80 percent of Senegalese horticulturalists are located around Mont
Rolland, where the most critical problem is water. The reduction in the
groundwater level, which has been known for some time, has led to decreasing
land fertility and, as a result, food insecurity.
In the Fatick region, 155 kilometres west of Dakar, the availability of
clean water is often unpredictable because of frequent pump breakdowns.
''The government has initiated a project, which will provide 116 villages
with clean drinking water at a cost of 18 billion CFA (about 30 million U.S.
dollars),'' says Babacar Sarr, head of the Regional Hydraulics Division.
The project will ensure that 70,000 people have clean drinking water,
representing yet another victory in the fight against food insecurity in
Senegal, according to agricultural experts.
Cleaning the wells frequently will also contribute to stamping out
diarrhoeal illnesses, which have long plagued villagers.
The Senegalese government is also trying to create artificial rain in
peanut-growing regions. There, the construction of some 50 rainwater
retention reservoirs has already begun. Implementation of the project could
begin as early as the beginning of next winter.
Water was at the heart of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg, South Africa, last year, and at the World Water Summit in
Kyoto, Japan, last month. Water needs to be supplied not only in sufficient
quantity to ensure human development, but it also must be well managed.
''Rational water management as well as individual and collective
conservation efforts are the objective means to guarantee future generations
high quality and plentiful water," says Sarr.
(END)
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