Rehabilitation of water points in Niger

Using local structures to rehabilitate rural water points

Status

Needs funding

Focus area

Project category

Location

Dosso
Dosso, Niger

Description
Goals
Sustainability

Improve access to water in the Dosso region in Niger by rehabilitation of 20 water points and improving the maintenance system and spare part supply in the region.

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Volanta pump in Niger

Target benchmarks

17 functioning water systems
6800 persons with access to improved water for 15 years
95 persons who receive training / education per year

The goal of this project is to rehabilitate 15-20 water points in the Dosso region that are currently not operational due to lack of spare part supply of the Volanta pumps. Within this project, local pump mechanics are trained to repair the pumps and local production of spare parts is initiated in Dosso. With the structures in place, rehabilitation of other water points in the area should become feasible for the village water committees with minimal external intervention.

Target benchmarks

17 functioning water systems
6800 persons with access to improved water for 15 years
95 persons who receive training / education per year

Goals overview

15 - 20 rural water points rehabilitated
15 - 20 water committees trained in waterpoint management
4 regional pump mechanics trained
improved spare part supply in the region
local employment in spare part production

Sustainability of the project is extremely important, as it will be a start-up of improving the whole maintenance structure for Volanta deepwell pumps in the region, including improving spare part supply and improving the skills of the pump mechanics in the region. The project will function as a pilot, starting with 15-20 water points, where the water user committees will be encouraged to initiate the actions needed to rehabilitate the water point. In most cases, this will include repairs on the pump and replacement of parts. Costs associated with this should be covered by the committee to some extent, creating additional funds to support other committees.
Additional training (both technical and business training) of local pump mechanics will ensure that knowledge around installation and repairs of deepwell pumps is not going to waste and will enable those mechanics to run a profitable business.
The first order of spare parts for 20 water points will enable the local production facility for Volanta pumps in Niger, ACREMA (Atelier de construction et réparation du matériel agricole; Tahoua) to pick up production and invest in production means. To guarantee the quality of the spare parts, PRACTICA will give additional training in quality control for ACREMA and C-DARMA, both working with Volanta pumps and part of the same cooperative umbrella organisation in Niger.
With maintenance systems in place, PRACTICA will put effort in convincing other organisations to use the locally produced Volanta pumps as to stimulate the local economy and local private sector.

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