Project Overview
The location of the project is within the administrative boundaries of Nord Region in Northern Burkina Faso. Nord region is a largely rural area with four main provinces: Loroum, Passoré, Yatenga, and Zondoma.
In Burkina Faso, 19.6% of land area is forest area but the country loses just under 110,000 ha of forest cover every year. Between 2000-2015, the average annual rate of deforestation was 1%, with one of the drivers of being the demand for fuelwood and charcoal. Coupled with other factors, this has resulted in the country experiencing frequent droughts and of recent, desertification. These occurrences have made water resources more scarce and reduced water availability across regions. This has led to negative impacts such as the increased risk of water borne diseases and poor sanitation.
The government and some community groups or community based organizations (CBOs) established safe water points across the country but these have now fallen into disrepair because maintenance programmes have been poorly managed, or proven too expensive.
Project Impacts
CO2balance hopes to rehabilitate 500 boreholes across Burkina Faso, vastly improving the quality of life of thousands of families, reduce the risk of water-borne diseases and ensure households consume less firewood during the process of water purification. Together with Transform Burkina, CO2balance will rehabilitate the water points and deliver the maintenance programme for all the water points included in the project activity to ensure that the quality of the water delivered by the water points is fit for human consumption for the entire length of the project, which will be a minimum of five years. To encourage improved hygiene and sanitation practices, community-led trainings focused on behavior change and keeping the water points area clean, will be conducted within communities. This will be done to ensure sustainable improvements and reduce the incidence of water-borne diseases.
Prior to the project, local people typically use wood fuel on inefficient three stone fires to purify their drinking, cleaning and washing water. This process results in the release of greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of wood. This can be avoided if a technology that does not require fuel (wood or fossil) supplies clean water desired by households.
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