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The example of ACF
We met in Khartoum, Mr
Patrick David, person in charge for
ACF Sudan.
Introduction :
The association "Contre the Faim"
(= against the hunger) is an ONG of French
origin working, in general, in the urgency,
to provide for the needs for the populations
suffering from malnutrition.
The lack of water is a direct cause of malnutrition.
The bad quality of water, it, in is an indirect
cause because it causes diarrhoeas which
cause they same a dehydration and a food
deficiency.
Sudan is a country which knows a civil
war since 1983, the conflicts are localised
in the Southern part of the country. Continuations
with the massacres perpetrated in the area,
the populations of the South massively migrated
towards Khartoum where they came squatter
in many districts under very precarious
conditions often.
Dice 1990, in front of the threat of 2 million
Southerners in the northerner capital (the
Southerners are African, mainly Christian,
and the northerners are Arab, mainly Moslem),
the totalitarian mode places from there
decided to much further move these populations
from the city with strict town-plannings.
But that represented (and represents always
today) big problems of infrastructures and
among those, water because it had there
no system of water conveyance.
Hydrotour : Hello Patrick
David, thank you to give us your time and
to present the projects to us which you
have for water. At which time ONG ACF it
did start to be interested in the problems
of water in Khartoum? From the very start
of the war?
Patrick David : The war started in
Sudan in 1983, it seems important to me
to specify that this war is not that a war
of religion, it is the resultant of several
problems:
- Ethnic,
- Economic (south with oil and water)
- the management of the Nile (the wandering
tribes of the South refused the construction
of the channel of Jongleï because that
would have obliged them with sédentariser
once the drained marshes)
- and finally the religion
With this situation was added 7 years of
secheress that Sudan underwent between 1981
to 1987, of which most dramatic is that
of 1984.
We intervened for the first time in Sudan
in 1985 in the area of Nuba where the conditions
were dramatic. Then starting from 1988 ACF
intervened in Khartoum to fight against
the Cholera.
Hydrotour : You initiated
a project of water 5 years ago with the
periphery of Khartoum in the districts of
moved. Can you speak to us a little about
it?
Patrick David : The project was
initiated in 1998 in a district of 1000
hearths (6000 people) where water arrived
in barrels drawn by asses at high prices
and under conditions from poor hygienes.
Three priorities were essential then:
- Drilling of a well
- Installations of latrines
- Training of the population to the rules
of hygienes.
Hydrotour : ACF works
in the urgency, that does occur once that
the technical realization is finished and
that people have water at their disposal?
Patrick David : Once the situation
urgently last, the problem of ACF is to
be able to leave with the local populations
the management of the project and the installations.
And it is not easy matter to achieve! A
well builds too quickly without the participation
of the population becomes the well of ACF
and its management and maintenance are and
must remain (according to the buildings)
spring of ACF. It is the syndrome of dependence,
nobody does not want to be occupied some.
Many wells are except service after 6 months
and these experiments are to be avoided.
It is necessary thus to develop a cultural
approach (a hand pump for example is sometimes
not adapted because people do not see from
which leaves water) and participative and
all that in the urgency, because if we intervene
it is that the situation is catastrophic.
We work also much the Community policy and
we always seek to know what really the inhabitants
and the women want.
Afterwards, it is necessary to take time
to be withdrawn from a project, the Community
policy can prove to be dangerous, because
a badly disposed person can do everything
to hood.
In this direction the project that we will
visit is a success, 3 years after the withdrawal
of ACF, it continues to turn and develops
on the co-operative mode.
Hydrotour : Which is the
secrecy of their success?
Patrick David : The success of this
project and many others depends on the economic
viability of the project once that it is
autonomous, without ONG. Here, everyone
can be made money while starting with the
well, which releases a benefit directly
reinvested for the community, to the water
retailer and even with the consumer who
pays his water less expensive.
Hydrotour : Before passing
to the project in itself, can you say to
us, according to you, which is the place
of water in the durable development?
Patrick David : It has a fundamental
place. Water is a basic need and a factor
of social bonds. It solutions should be
found new and innovating because it is necessary
to fight for water and this on three axes:
1. At the technical level (search for new
techniques...);
2. At community level and social (the populations
must have left fascinating);
3. And finally on the level of the management
of the conflicts which can emerge in the
competition for water (as well with the
niveu of the countries of the individuals).
Hydrotour : As French,
old of the international co-operation, having
côtoyé terrible situations
of famine and epidemic, do you have a word
to say to the children who follow us?
Patrick David : I congratulate them
to follow your project. It is particularly
important that they take by themselves conscience
of the problem of the water which starts
in France and Belgium. Water is an invaluable
good, it is necessary to protect it and
respect it. It is not because one has the
chance to have water tous.les.jours which
it should not be fought so that all the
children have this same chance. I thus encourage
them to fight so that all the families of
the world have water.
Presentation and visit of the station of
pumping with the executive committee of
the co-operative :
ACF arrived in 1998 with this project of
well. They carried it out and two years
after, they passed the reindeers to us.
District 27, where we are, passed from 6000
to 21000 people in 5 years for two reasons
- water close to the well is less expensive
and of better quality;
- with water one can make cob and bricks
and thus build houses.
From the very start, at the time of the
construction of the well, a local committee
was elected by the community. It was a question
of finding 6 people voluntary not remunerated
(they perceive just a small amount at the
time of each assembly), ready to receive
a formation and to invest themselves in
the management of the well. In more of this
committee it was necessary to find members
ready to invest themselves in other parts
of the project.
Various types of formations were thus exempted:
- Administration of association and co-operative
(since it is in co-operative that the well
evolved/moved).
- Management of the well
- Data processing
- Analysis of water
- medical Promotion (use of water, rules
of hygienes, analyzes medical situations...)
Today, the project turns with 5 employees:
- the cash clerk who perceives the money
paid by those which take water
- the mechanic
- the assistant mechanic
- a guard of day (which is also the dispachor)
and a guard of night.
Normally when there is a technical problem
the reaction of the co-operative is rather
fast thanks to the presence on the spot
of two mechanics. If it acts of a more serious
problem requiring the purchase of material,
the mechanic must refer about it to the
committee which makes the final decision.
This can sometimes cause the closing of
the well during one or two days.
In this case the donkey-edges must go to
another well to find water.
The donkey-cans : Composed of two
welded barrels one with the other, they
have a capacity of 200L and are generally
carried out by children or teenagers and
are drawn generally by an ass and sometimes
by a horse.
In order to preserve a good quality of water,
the co-operative developed a system of certification
of the cleanliness of the barrels. Once
per month, the donkey-edges must come to
make wash the interior of their barrel and
a marking of the barrel makes it possible
the guard to reject any donkey-cans which
was not washed in the month.
The price of a barrel to the well is fixed
by the government at 50 Dinars Sudanese
(either 0,15€) and it is resold between
300 and 600 dinars (1or 2€) according
to the distance.
The station : Tous.les.jours a pump
extracts more than 210 m³ ground. Water
is sent in a water tower which can contain
32m³. It is analyzed monthly and a
chlorine adduction is made according to
its quality.
Projects :
Beyond construction and maintenance of this
station of pumping, we have creates a seedbed
which we irrigate with the water which is
lost at the time of the filling of all the
containers. The plants which push there
are resold in the village.
The project of latrines is finished and
relates to nothing any more but the newcomers.
With the money of the benefit of the well
we could restore and increase the school
of the village.
We now hope to buy an electric generator
to allow the distribution of electricity.
Our last project is the construction of
another station of pumping. We besides have
just received a purse of the Embassy of
France of 60000€ (note: this money
comes from the Funds of a company of Development
placed at the disposal of the embassies
of the countries of the priority zone of
solidarity).
In spite of our financial autonomy we do
not have alas yet the enough solid kidneys
to be able to finance our large projects
alone and we are always in the search of
funds. Opinion with the givers…
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