3. Post-Conflict Recovery.

Having looked at surface water contamination in Ghana last week, this week I will be investigating management of water supplies following conflict, addressing Côte d'Ivoire’s successful water privatisation, and comparing this to the pitfalls of water management in Sierra Leone.    

Both Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone share similar stories, having gained independence in the early 1960s and having since been marred by conflict, with Côte d'Ivoire's armed rebellion in 2002 splitting the nation in two (HRW, 2011), and Sierra Leone’s 1991 to 2002 Civil War claiming some 70,000 casualties and displaced 2.6 million people (UNDP). 

UN Troops in Côte d'Ivoire. Source. 

This persistent unrest has had numerous adverse implications on sanitation and water quality, with mass-urbanisation following the conflict placing a strain on sewage and sanitation facilities in urban areas, heightening the risk of water-borne diseases such as Guinea worm (MAP International). In Sierra Leone, the situation remains dire, with the civil war putting most of the nation’s water supply and sanitation infrastructure out of service (AMCOW), highlighted by less than 40% of households having access to clean, safe drinking water (Masaray et al).

However despite these challenges, in terms of water supply in Côte d'Ivoire, the SODECI (Société de distribution d’eau de la Côte d’Ivoire), an example of privatisation of the water supply, can be viewed as highly successful, originally covering a system of 4,000 connections  and now running all water supply systems in the nation (PPIAF). Moreover, the SODECI scheme, led by the French company Eranover, has proven to be resilient despite the turmoil of conflict, serving 7 million people, whilst increasing the share of non-revenue water from 18 to 23 percent (PPIAF).   

Furthermore, whilst the SODECI provides water to mostly urban areas, community water management schemes occur in rural areas. These community-based approaches, with the government recently installing 120 human-powered pumps in rural areas across the nation (Afrik21) for example, have enabled locals to have overall responsibility for development and maintenance of their own supplies, with ‘community participation’ being central to development (Harvey and Reed, 2006). The latest scheme, Programme D’Hydraulique et D’Assainissement Pour Le Millenaire, has enlisted the help of the private French-based company MTK Services (Vergent Hydo), providing more than 150,000 individuals with water. To an extent therefore, such private participation schemes may be the best route for West African nations, with privatisation noted as preventing approximately 375 deaths of young children per year (Galiani et al, 2002).   

Women in a village in Côte d'Ivoire use an India Mark II pump. Source. 

In contrast however, Sierra Leone’s water management is severely lacking, with government bodies such as the Guma Valley Water Company (GVWC) and SLWACO being the primary suppliers. Poor management means that GVWC has only 13,700 registered consumers in its database, in a city of over 1 million residents (Harris et al, 2012). Furthermore, corruption and SLWACO’s decision to use the German Kardia handpumps, which are more than twice as expensive as the India Mark II pumps used by most NGOs, with parts that are hard to find, make community participation a challenge, whilst the blurred role of the organisation has further limited local community assistance (World Bank). As a result of these government failures, alternative bottom-up community-led schemes have emerged in rural areas, with volunteers in the town Rokupr for example, rehabilitating the water supply system, with, “A fair, affordable and self-sufficient tariff system” being set up in the town (JICA). 

Overall,  Golooba-Mutebi's (2003) descriptions of a need for a diverse private and community approach appears most apt. By encouraging both vertical and horizontal coordination and enabling accountability enforcement mechanisms to be implemented, corruption can be limited and there can be a cut-back in the misallocation of water. However, as next weeks blog will reveal, we should remain skeptical of overseas interference (Bayliss, 2003), with China’s Africa-wide “Going Global Strategy” raising some serious questions regarding whether China is a neo-colonial threatening opportunist or a genuine development power (Chan, 2018).