DEVELOPMENT-SENEGAL: Water Shortages Hit Women the Most

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

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.