WAWI BACKGROUND

Young boy shown watering a garden plot by throwing water from a small container carried from the water source. Many trips must be made to bring adequate water to the garden, and the process must be repeated daily.

Chronic shortages of water have threatened human health, agriculture, and economic advancement in underdeveloped nations worldwide. In year 2000, an estimated 1.1 billion people lacked access to clean water, and 2.4 billion lacked access to any form of improved sanitation services (http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/
monitoring/Glassessment2.pdf, 11/29/2005). In addition, estimates indicate about 250 million cases of water-related diseases result from unsafe drinking water and unclean domestic environments, causing between 5 and 10 million deaths each year. (http://www.thinkquest.org/apr04dec04/water.shtml, 11/29/2005).   Inspired by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the West Africa Water Initiative (WAWI) grew from the foundation’s experience with World Vision International and the Ghana Rural Water Project. Commissioned in 1984, this program has provided water and sanitation services in Ghana as the entry point for community development, supplying water to more than 500,000 people. Through WAWI, access to clean water now is being expanded to Ghana’s neighbors, Mali and Niger over the 7-year duration (2002–2008) of the project.

Women carry cans to local water source to retrieve water for domestic and gardening uses. These containers can weigh up to 44 pounds. African women and children can walk 3 ½ miles daily to collect water.

World Vision serves as the secretariat for WAWI and helps coordinate the cross-sectoral effort to drill new wells, construct household latrines, improve existing water sources and sanitation services, provide health education and training in sanitation and hygiene practices, train health-care personnel, provide medical supplies for eye-care, field test small-scale farming and micro-irrigation systems, and foster farm-centered research and extension. In addition, WAWI seeks to establish a hydrologic database management system and build in-country technical capacities for well-siting and water-quality analysis.

By 2008, WAWI partners expect to reach more than one-half million people in Ghana, Mali, and Niger with 825 new water boreholes, 100 alternative water resources, and 9,000 household and public latrines. Technical resource centers for maintaining and repairing the water systems are being constructed, and thousands of adults, children, and teachers are being instructed in basic hygiene and sanitation practices.  

Hand pump located in rural community provides water for domestic use, as well as irrigation. Pumped water can be channeled to outlying locations.

Expanded availability of water for agriculture combined with training in irrigation technologies and skills is allowing a broad range of fruits and vegetables to be produced during the 8-month dry season. Previously, lack of appropriate irrigation technologies and related skills prevented rural villagers from producing crops for household use or for generating income at local markets. Finally, a holistic transformation is needed among the peoples of Ghana, Mali, and Niger to achieve sustainable water resources and to develop local capacity-building techniques and skills. To achieve this transformation, WAWI is seeking strategies that (a) foster change in socioeconomic structures that impede local initiative, (b) draw people into owning decision-making processes, (c) value indigenous knowledge and beliefs among community members and their innate capacity to effect change, and (d) emphasize “processes” rather than “projects.”