Meet the families in Fitiribougou benefitting from the water connections donated by Putrenovatie.nl
28 November 2018Following the visit to the Major of Commune 5 in Bamako some weeks earlier, SOMAGEP-SA and World Waternet went to Fitiribougou on October 18th to follow up on the realization of the 13 household connections donated by the Dutch entreprise ‘Putrenovatie.nl’. We spoke to the families benefitting from the domestic connections and saw the last tap being installed. With good results: ‘pressure’ was on and the water tasted deliciously.
The selected neighborhood of Fitiribougou has an existing network of more than 20 km. Many families though, cannot afford a ‘private’ connection’ to their own house. 13 families were chosen based on a predefined criteria between the SOMAGEP team and the mayor of commune V in Bamako. All benefitting families are contributing an amount of 30,000 CFA (around 45 euro), a minimal contribution for even the poorest families to increase ownership and as a guarantee that they will be able to pay the water bills later on. The total costs of a household connection is on average 155.000 CFA (236 euro), meaning each family received a subsidy (from Putrenovatie.nl ()) of about 191 euro. It took two days for the SOMAGEP team to complete the 13 connections.
The new connections gave a smile to several families. Ms. Fanta Ballo, head of a family of 22 persons asserted that thanks to this project, her family no longer needed to queue at the public standpipes in their neighborhood. Besides the distance (200 meter away from their house), the standpipes are only operated in daytime and the costs of water are up to 50 times higher. So the benefits of the new household connection to her family are plentiful.
Mr. Sekou Kone is happy he can now provide his family with cheap and easy accessible water: “It was frustrating to see the drinking water network coming so close to my house, but not being able to benefit from it. The initial investment of 155.000 CFA is just too high for me. With the support of Putrenovatie.nl I now have not only easier access, but also cheaper and cleaner water”(because the risk of contamination during transportation from the public tap to home is reduced).
As Fitiribougou is one of the poorer neighbourhoods in Bamako, household-size exceeds the average ten persons per household (which SOMAGEP normally uses for statistics). The number of persons that are part of the families we visited, ranged from 12 to 22, meaning that the 13 connections will benefit between 200 and 250 people.
The People’s Association of Fitiribougou was very helpful in spreading the news about this initiative and also to support in the selection of the families. We would like to thank them, as well as the Major of Commune 5, for their support. A six-month follow-up will be made by SOMAGEP, to follow up on the volumes of water consumed and the payments made (of the issued invoices).