The “Igueben Ten” Water Project

A proposal submitted by the

Compassion Initiative for Development

To the

Global Water Challenge Competition

Total Project Cost

$291,559

Duration of Project

One year

Contact Person

James Falaiye

Compassion Initiative for Development

VikkoPlaza (ground floor)

2 Oghogho Street, Off Dawson Road

P. O. Box 7196, Benin City

Nigeria

Tel: 234 8029768649, 234 52 465179

E-mail: ,

PROJECT BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION

Water is an important natural endowment, but the Nigerian peoples, especially in the rural communities, continue to lack access to safe water. Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams and other kinds of water sources abound in the country. Yet many people have died and others are sick because of the lack of safe water. The federal, state and local governmentsin Nigeria have spent millions of naira in attempts to providesafe water for their citizens, but these efforts have been grossly inadequate in meeting the needs of the local populations for safe water. The situation is worst in the rural areas where infrastructural development is very poor.

Rural water supply coverage in Nigeriais estimated at about 35%. Only about 50% of the urban and 20% of the semi-urban populations have access to reliable water supply of acceptable quality. This is quite small compared to other West African countries.

Only 14% of rural and 15% of urban water sources in Nigeria are safe. However, most Nigerians depend on surface water and this is not safe because of the heavy presence of both natural and man-made contaminants. Majority of the wells are traditional and non-protected, and water sourced from tankers and vendors are mostly contaminated and not safely handled to avoid contamination.

Government is mainly responsible for providing water for communities in Nigeria. But the government-sponsored water supply projects have suffered great setbacks, ranging from non-implementation to abandonment. There have been no sufficient funds to procure the essential inputslike pumps, generators and tanks. Federal government allocations to the state and local governments are inadequate, while state governments release only insufficient proportions of their budgeted expenses to water supply.

Emphasis has been on large scale investments, but many of the water schemes were poorly designed and had adverse environmental health consequences. Some of the schemes are not functioning due to faulty installation or lack of maintenance.The major water development projects are concentrated in the urban areas. And most of these projects remain uncompleted, while those that were completed have long broken down without any serious plans to rehabilitate them.

There is also lack of sustained effective political commitment on the part of successive governments to improve rural water supply.

These have left the responsibility of providing water to individual house owners, who have to dig wells or boreholes in private residences at exorbitantcosts that are not within the reach of the average citizen. The rural dwellers (about 70% of Nigeria’s population) are worst affected because of the extreme level of poverty. The low service level of water in the rural areas has left rural dwellers at the risk of high prevalence of water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, diarrhea, schistosomiasis, dracunculiasis, malaria and onchocerciasis. And this has made water-borne diseases an important public health concern and unconquerable monster for many years in Nigeria.

Women and girls, who fetch water from sources far away from the household are greatly threatened by: (i) exposure to water-borne diseases at or near the source and through the vectors; (ii) exposure to accidents, drowning, attack, and assault at and on the way to and from the water source; and (iii) skeletal injuries caused by carrying heavy loads repeatedly over long periods.

Improved access to domestic water supplies can produce huge health benefits, because better access to water will improve hygiene behavior among rural dwellers.

Some NGOs and donor agencies have been assisting in providing safe drinking water to rural communities, but these efforts have been mainly concentrated in the northern parts of Nigeria.There are yet many communities in the south that are greatly affected by the lack of safe water. Examples are communities in Igueben Local Government Area of Edo State, where access to safe drinking water is a serious health and socio-economic problem.

The “Igueben Ten”water project was therefore designed to respond to the persistent water and sanitation problems affecting communities in Igueben Local Government Area of Nigeria. The objectives are to:

  1. Provide safe water to 10 rural communities in thelocal government area.
  2. Sensitize rural communities on sanitation and hygiene practices.
  3. Mobilize community involvement in the provision and maintenance of water resources in their communities.

PROJECT SITE

The project will be carried out in 10 rural communities in Igueben Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. Igueben is one of the 18 local government areas in EdoState of Nigeria. The local government has an estimated population of about 50,000. It has nine major communities and over 90 sub-communities. About 90% of the inhabitants are peasant farmers, petty traders, and cattle rearers with little or no western education. There is only one general hospital in the entire local government area, 35 public-owned primary schools and 10 primary health care centers owned by the government. There is high level of poverty among the inhabitants of the local government area.

There is acute shortage of safe water available for the rural communities in the local government area. Community members mainly collect water from rainfalls, burrow pits, and little streams, which are usually far away from their households. These sources of water are not hygienic for domestic use, as they are sometimes messed up by cattle and other animals that also come there to graze and drink water. These water sources also easily dry up during the dry season.

The water problem in this local government area has been peculiar in that efforts to provide water for them have been unsuccessful because there is no major river to build dams and it is very difficultto construct conventional boreholes because the water table is far below the surface of the ground.

In 2004, Compassion Initiative for Development (CID) (then known as the Compassion Foundation for the Less Privileged) identified the critical need for safe water among communities in the local government area. Consequently, CID decided to work with the rural communities in finding a lasting solution to the water problem. The Initiative explored many possibilities and eventually discovered a local technology to construct deep wells in form of boreholes for some of the communities. The technology is expensive and efforts to secure government support for expansion of the project have been unsuccessful.

We identified and employedsome artisans from the neighboringRepublic of Benin, who specialize in digging boreholes where the water table is extremely low. With their assistance and funds raised locally, we were able to dig five deep wells in some communities within the local government area. Each of the boreholes was about 600ft deep, equipped with pumps and 2000-litre capacity overhead water tanks. The deep wells were formally handed over to the communitiesin December 2004, who now manage the installations.

CID wishes to extend the water supply services to other communities in the local government area, but has not been successful in securing funds to execute the project since then. The present project is therefore seeking funds to extend the project to 10 other communities within the local government area.

PROJECT ADMINISTRATION

This project will be administered by the Compassion Initiative for Development (CID).CID is a non-profit non-governmental organization with head office in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. CID was established in November 2002 to mitigate the increasing levels of poverty, collapse of social amenities and infrastructure, depleting natural resources, widespread unemployment, and increasing levels of despair and hopelessness among rural dwellers and the urban poor.

CID has carried out other development projects in Igueben and other communities in Nigeria, especially in the area of health and education.

CID, with its team of engineers and consultants,has identified communities within the local government area that are seriously affected by this problem and will visit those communities to re-assess them and make the necessary consultations with the local people to ensure community ownership of the project from the onset.

The project is expected to last one year and will be implemented in two phases. During Phase I, which is the preparatory phase, CID will meet with stakeholders in the communities to introduce the project to them and seek their support for the project. After the meeting with community stakeholders we will form a 15-member project implementation and monitoring team. This will include one member from each of the ten communities, two representatives from the local council and three others from Compassion Initiative.The project implementation team will meet four times during project implementation and subsequently as necessary to ensure proper maintenance of the project.

During the preparatory phase we will contact the artisans to negotiate the terms of the project with them and agree on deadlines. The preparatory phase will last three months.

Phase II of the project will involve the digging of the deep wells in the communities and installation of equipments. This is expected to take nine months. During this phase we will also organize community awareness campaigns on water hygiene and sanitation practices and educate community members on proper maintenance of the projects. We will use the opportunity to select (based on recommendations from the communities) and inaugurate a five-member maintenance and protection team in each of the communities. These members will be trained on the maintenance of the facilities and will be responsible for the daily maintenance and security of the boreholes.

Each of the deep wells will be equipped with an electrical power generating set because electrical power supply is not available in some of the villages and even where there is power supply it is irregular.

After completion of the boreholes, we will organize handing over ceremonies to formally hand over the project to the communities, who willsubsequently be responsible securing and maintaining the boreholes and all equipment installed. The handing over ceremony will involve the media, representatives of civil society organizations, donor agencies, development partners, the government, and community members.

PROJECT REPORTING AND DISSEMINATION

A detailed narrative and financial report will be written and submitted at the end of the project. The report will thereafter be disseminated to the public through CID’s website and other publications.

1

PROJECT TIMELINE

Project activity / Month
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12
Meeting with stakeholders in the communities / X
Meetings of the project implementation and monitoring team / X / X / X / X
Negotiation with artisans / X
Equipment procurement / X / X
Digging of boreholes and installation of equipments / X / X / X / X / X
Community awareness campaigns/seminars / X / X / X / X / X
Selection training of maintenance and protection committees / X / X / X
Project handing over ceremonies / X
Report writing and submission / X

1

PROJECT BUDGET

Project administration and coordination

Personnel / $
Project coordinator@ $1000/month x 12 months / 12,000
Project engineer (Hydrogeologist) @ $800/month x 12 months / 9600
Field support staff@ $500/month x 12 months / 6000
General administration
One computer with printer / 980
Office stationery / 2000
Communication / 500
Photocopies / 300
Utilities and office space / 1500
Local transport / 500
Sub-total / 33,380

Meetings and consultations

Meeting with community leaders to discuss the project with them and to select project committee members (one meeting per community x 10 communities @ $300 each / 3000
Four meetings of implementation team @ $200 each x 4 meetings / 800
Handing over ceremonies of the project to the communities (cost of tea/snacks for guests and of cultural presentations) / 1500
Sub-total / 5300
Enlightenment seminars
One enlightenment seminar per community on water hygiene and sanitation practices (tea/snacks @ $300per community x 10 communities) / 3,000
Honorarium and transport reimbursement to 3 resource persons @ $100 per person x 10 communities / 1,000
Training workshop on maintenance of installations will be held for 3 representatives from each community at the one of the project communities (tea/snacks for participants @ $300 per community 10 communities) / 3,000
Honorarium and transport refund for one resource person x 10 communities / 2000
Sub-total / 9000
Digging of deep well, equipment procurement and installation
Well drilling @ $10,030 x 10 / 100,300
Equipping of well @ $2010 x 10 / 20,100
Power supply @ $2310 x 10 / 23,100
Elevated water tank and stanchion @ $2310 x 10 / 23,100
Service taps and generator house @ $3675 x 10 / 36,750
Sub-total / 203,350
Project monitoring, evaluation and report writing / 2500
Institutional capacity development / 25353
5% contingency plan / 12676
Grand total / 291,559

1