The representatives of Agrisud presented the project to SEEN/Veolia Environment convinced that our activities were complementary. In the beginning, water was a necessary resource for implementing the project, but it wasn't considered for the consumption of the local population. This is because, in the villages where they decided to act, the wells that they had built or rehabilitated were almost exclusively intended to irrigate the market gardens. However, when they found that the villagers used the water of these wells for their own consumption, they turned to us to seek our help in analyzing the quality of the water tapped. In our country, hydraulic stress reflects a population need for availabile water. Yet given the importance of waterborne diseases, Agrisud, with the help of the Veolia Environment Foundation, raised the fundamental, if not countervailing issue, of water quality.
Doudou Habibou-Halidou
Habibou Halidou Doudou, special assistant for the Environment at SEEN (Société d'Exploitation des Eaux du Niger), bears responsibility for several projects carried out by the company's sustainable development unit. A specialist in hydraulic questions, he supervises, alongside Jean-Hugues Hermant-Lagrange of the Veolia Environment Foundation, the development of the Agrisud project in Niger: the installation of market gardens for twenty-four villages located in three districts.
This vast program, which has a significant "water" aspect, is aimed to establish the food security of the populations pursuing a local economic development approach.
How did you get in touch with Agrisud?
What sort of organization did you set up?
As soon as the guidelines were drawn up from Agrisud, a request was sent to the Veolia Environment Foundation. The NGO needed financial support, as well as our expertise. With Jean-Hugues Hermant-Lagrange of the Foundation and Anne-Sophie Pierre, of Veolia Environment, we formed a small steering committee to follow the project.
Given the needs identified, our support takes the form of financial sponsorship and sponsorship of skills. In addition to the traditional supervision of Foundation sponsor provided for a project (accompaniment of its progress and verification of the proper use of the funds), our mission, as we defined it with Agrisud, will consist in performing bacteriological and physiochemical analyses of the water from 41 wells and 86 basins, and confirming the availability of the water. All of this in 24 villages spread throughout the three districts of Dosso, Tahoua and Diffa. A major task, especially considering that the distances here are very long, the bacteriological analyses have to be performed on the spot and the others at Niamey. We calculated that the mission would require 30 days of work.
A volunteer from the Veolia Environment Foundation will come over to launch the operation and train a laboratory worker and myself, and we will then continue the work done throughout the area concerned.
What do you expect from this project?
First, it will give us an accurate knowledge of the quality and availability of the water in these wells. We can then propose solutions to improve its drinkability. Already, due to the simple fact of the construction of the new wells and the rehabilitation of the old ones, the villagers no longer drink the water of the ponds during the winter season, thereby reducing the number of persons suffering from waterborne diseases. This project will reach at least one thousand two hundred families!
At the strictly personal level, this project represents for me a golden opportunity to "catch up": in 2005, when my country was struck by a severe food crisis, I was a student in Morocco and - although with a number of friends, I had created a small student solidarity NGO - we were unable to take any significant action. I felt guilty: I am very worried about the living conditions of the rural population. Here, my modest contribution will be of some help to the most vulnerable families - those who live in very dry areas.
I can participate in an initiative that fosters local dynamism by guaranteeing the quality of the drinking water as well as food security.
