The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative

Case Received: February 5, 1998

Author: Mamadou Diallo, Hauts-Bassins Regional Water Department

Telephone: +226 97 1548

Fax: +226 98 0390

Location:     The southwestern regions of Burkina Faso, including Bobo-Dioulasso (the country’s second-largest city), Bougouriba, Comoé, Houet, Kénédougou, Poni, Tuy, Léraba, Ioba and Noumbiel. These regions make up around 1/5 of the country’s surface area, or about 60,000 km², and are home to around 2 million people.

The Minister for the Environment and Water is in overall charge of the program, and the project manager is the State Water Department. The Hauts-Bassins Regional Water Department is de facto program director, on behalf of the Minister for the Environment and Water.

The total budget is 15 million ECU (around 100 million French francs), financed by non-repayable aid from the 7^th European Development Fund (FED) of the European Union.

The program will be implemented over a period of 6-1/2 years, with a completion date of December 31 1999.

The program comprises the following five divisions:

• the management and planning division (SDP), which is also responsible for strategic planning within the four sub-programs – 2.5 % of budget

• the sub-program (SP) water resources (responsible for strategic planning and for increasing public knowledge of water-resource issues) – 6.5 %;

• the sub-program (SP) water-resources development (responsible for innovation in economic development and contract management of water resources) – 11 % of budget.

• the sub-program (SP) water management in semi-rural areas (responsible for establishing a sustainable supply of drinking water for users in large rural centers) – 21 % of budget.

• the sub-program (SP), rural water management (responsible for establishing a sustainable supply of drinking water in rural areas) – 59 % of budget.

The RESO program thus embraces the three principal themes of the conference:

• providing education about water resources and their use (SP water resources),

• legal and institutional instruments; training (all five divisions),

• planning and financing (SDP division, and for financing, the SPs on water-resources development, semi-rural water management, and rural water management).

The program is primarily concerned with the following issues:

• drinking-water supplies,

• irrigation,

• the environment,

• joint management of resources.

The program’s implementation recognizes three distinct environments :

• urban (Bobo-Dioulasso is the second-largest city in the country with a population of 350,000; the SP on water-resources development is responsible for non-urban irrigation projects),

• secondary areas (through the SP on semi-rural water management)

• rural (through the SPs on rural water management and water-resources development).

60,000 km, or 1/5 of the country’s surface area

The wettest region of this Sahelian country, notably irrigated by its two great rivers.

Large human migration taking place, due to the eradication of river blindness and the country’s significant potential for the exploitation of water and soil resources.

There is significant potential for agricultural development, but the existing situation is characterized by localized water shortages and conflicts over use, and by poor use of water and soil resources.

The aim of the program is to help develop the water resources of the southwestern regions of Burkina Faso, in line with the goals of the global environment and water-management strategy decreed by the Government of Burkina Faso.

The program’s goals are the following:

• to improve AEPS’s (simplified drinking-water supply systems) to rural and semi-rural communities, within an overall framework that will ensure the sustainability of improvements and facilities,

• to develop facilities and supplies by, among other things, implementing basic program initiatives,

• to strengthen decentralized planning structures at the regional level, especially in the area of personnel training, so that the program may be entirely monitored by local agencies after completion.

Overall goal: to improve the management and the protection of water resources in the southwest.

Specific goal:     to significantly improve public awareness of water-resource issues, output potential and limitations.

• extremely efficient teams backed by solid scientific expertise,

• a multi-disciplinary team of scientists providing expertise in the fields of geology, hydro-geology, hydrology, soils, pedology, etc.,

• the collection, archiving and analysis of physical and socioeconomic data, using the scientific tools provided by water-management models,

• the "discovery" of available new resources,

• an action plan for the protection of natural resources.

• An inventory of water resources, filed under 13 categories (basic data, surface water resources, underwater water resources, agricultural water management, water management and grazing, urban and semi-rural water management, village water management, industrial water management, problems and conflicts, basic program initiatives and private initiatives, environmental impact and drainage, remote sensing, summary and recommendations). The files are accompanied by surveys of all 1,980 villages in the area, together with scientific and socioeconomic maps to a scale of 1:200.000, and basic data produced with the help of a Special Interest Group (SIG).

• a number of specific studies relating to geology, hydro-geology, hydrology, pedology and ecology, designed to provide more detailed information about particular sites,

• an analysis of the methods and the scientific tools used by the RESO program in the areas of geology, hydro-geology, hydrology, soils and ecology, consideration of how improvements might be made in these areas, and a start made toward the implementation of those improvements,

• the implementation of water-resource management models has begun, using the Hydrom, Pluviom, Hydram, Modilac (and soon Géolab) programs.

Overall goal:     to promote the economic importance of water and to help establish a water-based economy at the regional level.

Specific goal:     to strengthen, at a regional level, the ability of those involved in water management to initiate action in a productive and coherent manner.

• to support and promote the basic program initiatives,

• to help promote more efficient management of water and the infrastructure, with the aim of recovering costs and saving water resources,

• to set up permanent mechanisms and staff members to provide structured consultation services to those involved in water use,

• the creation of a favorable environment for program initiatives and the provision of support for those initiatives,

• an increased capacity for those initiatives to be self-funded and an improvement in their access to sources of finance,

• the expansion of the local market for goods and services in the water sector,

• the introduction of contract management staff to run water and water-management groups.

• demand promoted and participatory financing facilities developed: periodic departmental meetings have been held, a data base on requests for action has been set up (1,445 requests received up to June 30 1997, including 1,617 new bore holes, 232 new wells, 91 repairs to bore holes, 53 well repairs, 115 small dams, 25 improvements to shallows, 64 pastureland wells, 4 gardens, 24 micro-AEPS’s),

• support provided for a number of small-scale irrigation projects; summary of methods, improvements to 3 shallows (feasibility study, participatory financing, implementation),

• micro water-management systems: 3 pastureland wells, 5 market gardens, support for women’s activities (feasibility study, participatory financing facilities, implementation),

• support provided for the financing of program initiatives (capitalization of participatory financing facilities, the creation of a project-financing bank and periodical lobbying with agency preparations offices, companies and financial organizations involved at a local level),

• water-management and development support provided to local project managers and joint programs operating in the region,

• conventions on the management of infrastructure and water resources established (with the participation of private groups) in the large irrigated areas created a number of years ago by the State (Kou Valley, Banzon, Karfigúela): consultative analysis carried out, institutions set up, conventions negotiated and signed, implementation,

• Comoé and Kou basin committees established: regulations drawn up, committee appointed, ordinary sessions prepared and held (already the practice for several years in the case of Comoé).

Overall goal:     to supply drinking water to people in large rural villages (population 2,000 to 20,000), using techniques that promote decentralization and the establishment of a water-based economy.

Specific goal:     to install a sustainable drinking-water supply for people in these areas.

people will begin to work toward new goals, including:

• the development of the market value of water and the financing of the installation of AEPS’s (simplified drinking-water supply systems), which are more expensive than traditional village water supplies,

• project implementation: the selection and training of project management staff; the setting up of participatory financing facilities, initially for investment, then for maintenance and renewal; contracting management…

• a technical and economic feasibility study, a participatory financing facility, the creation of a user group and a management committee, the negotiation and signing of exploitation and maintenance contracts, the implementation and initiation of

• 6 community-managed solar-energy AEPS’s,

• 1 thermal-energy AEPS managed by the regional authority,

• the same preparatory and organizational procedures are under way in the case of 23 other AEPS’s, 11 of which should be completed over the next few months.

For the latter, a lease-farming system is being studied and will be tested.

Overall goal:     to provide drinking water to rural areas, using techniques that promote decentralization and the establishment of a water-based economy.

Specific goal:     to set up a sustainable drinking-water supply in rural areas.

• villagers will become responsible for maintenance,

• the establishment of a legal and financial foundation for water-resource committees,

• a new approach to maintenance, which will become a fully-fledged services activity,

• investment financing and the sustainability of new facilities will be assured.

• requests for action were received, selections were made, site surveys and feasibility studies were carried out,

• 435 contracts were negotiated and signed (for new projects or repairs of bore holes or wells) out of 570 planned under the program,

• 250 new bore holes out of 360 planned under the program,

• 70 bore holes repaired, out of 150 planned under the program,

• 15 new wells, out of 25 planned,

• 10 wells repaired, out of 22 planned,

• 7 pastureland wells, out of 12 planned,

• 400 pumps undergoing repair,

• the committees on waterholes are gradually being set up, formed and put into action,

• villages’ financial commitments have been reviewed,

• a general commitment to a new approach to maintenance, with the support of professional maintenance expert.

Overall goal:     the decentralization of planning procedures, the management and financing of interventions in the water sector and in [ORIGINAL TEXT MISSING HERE? –TRANSLATOR]

Specific goal:     to draw up a joint plan for the management of water resources in the South-West (SDAGRESO, or Development Plan for the Management of Water Resources in the South-West).

• an environmental approach, proceeding watershed-by-watershed (the South-West is also a testing zone for the new national water policy).

• joint strategic-planning.

The development plan will be the hub of regional water policy, in terms of technical, administrative, legal, economic and financial planning. It will define:

• the framework for a long-term strategy in the use and protection of water resources,

• management principles and procedures.

An instrument for reflection, innovation, capitalization and planning, the SDAGRESO is innovative because it is founded upon the following three pillars:

• scientific and technical aspects,

• institutional and organizational aspects,

• financial aspects.

• strategic planning was a concerted effort, developed on a joint basis,

• an extended institutional study was undertaken prior to consultation,

• a strategy on the use of computer resources has been drawn up and implemented,

• a forecasting and planning team has been set up, working together with the scientific and operational teams,

• those involved in joint planning have taken on the inventory,

• a documentation center has been set up,

• a set of criteria for each watershed has been set up on a joint basis,

• complementary macroeconomic studies have been initiated,

• the SDAGRESO consultation process has been designed and implemented.

The strength and soundness of the RESO program reside in its original design:

• several sub-programs, which are designed to provide concrete on-site results, and which allow for real-scale testing of innovations in the control and development of water resources,

• the desire to capitalize these inventions within an overall planning strategy. This desire was given concrete form with the creation, in March 1997, of a separate planning division that is also responsible for strategic planning within the four sub-programs.

Today, teams have accumulated on-site experience and a knowledge about capitalization that clearly converge upon the planning process.

The consultation process seeks to gradually change the attitudes of protagonists who are not accustomed to talking to one another, and who are sometimes suspicions of one another.

The consultation process is an instrument that turns mistrust into trust.

The process seeks to involve each different protagonist in turn. Those protagonists include:

• RESO program internal teams,

• institutional partners, or those organized by the Regional Water Department,

• the people living in the RESO area. Consultation with this group has already been initiated, albeit very cautiously at this stage, through various channels (including departmental meetings, coordination sessions, the formation of waterhole committees, the Comoé and Kou watershed committees, etc.…)

The institutional study has had the significant effect of involving the management and the various program teams in the SDAGRESO process.

The SDAGRESO consultation process, which is currently being implemented, is aimed primarily at involving RESO program partners in the planning process.

The current stress on the social aspects of project management (a part of the program still referred to as the "orientation" process) essentially reflects effort to involve the people.

The RESO program was begun in 1993 and largely redrafted in 1996. With two years to go until its completion, the program has witnessed:

• a big improvement in the results achieved by the teams and in their impact, notably with regard to capitalization and planning,

• a major increase in the visibility of the program’s issues

• and significant progress in the internalization of the SDAGRESO process.

This Burkina Faso-style internalization of knowledge is currently taking place on at least three levels:

Most importantly, there is an internalization of the planning process on the part of the program administrators,

Secondly, there is an internalization by the teams of the sub-program on water-resources, with respect to the environmental follow-up required in the area of water resources and the scientific tools needed to develop water resources and manage them in a sustainable manner,

Lastly, the internalization process is beginning to take effect, with the help of those involved with the social side of project management, in the specific area of maintenance. This is an area which could prove key to encouraging the people to change their approach to water-resource issues, and to do so within a relationship of trust between themselves and their future service providers in the water sector.

Thus, the transfer of knowledge achieved by the RESO program goes beyond the narrow domain of the program’s permanent teams (who are permanent officers of the Regional Water Department). The notion of the transfer of knowledge refers to far more than the knowledge of the teams involved in the program. Here, the transfer is aimed at the wider, and relatively more enduring public embodied by the program’s partners and the people with whom it is concerned, and seeks more to pass on a way of life rather than to effect the kind of knowledge transfer that is rigidly defined and rapidly obsolete.

The difficulties encountered are linked to the very innovative and very internalized nature of the program. Indeed, there are virtually no reference points or benchmarks to provide guidance for the joint strategic planning of water resources in a developing country located in a Sahelian region.

The first major difficulty was of a practical nature: the program had a great deal of difficulty finding preparation bureaux and consultants capable of achieving any kind of global understanding of the program’s goals and take an innovative approach.

This difficulty was reflected the fairly antagonistic relationships with a certain number of providers to the program. And yet, this difficulty was mitigated by the tremendous understanding shown by the sponsors, who were captivated by the way in which local groups had internalized the program.

The second major problem was of a conceptual nature: the recent experience with France’s SDAGE might have been useful. The French SDAGE (Schémas directeurs d’Aménagement et de Gestion des Eaux, or Strategic Plans for the Development and Management of Water) have been shown to be planning tools that are suited for French water companies, that is planning tools for financial and regulatory management of regional water policy within a large area, in a country that is heavily regulated and well irrigated, and in which concerns about pollution predominate.

The approach of the SDAGE is of limited use in a country in which water regulation is still vague and ineffective, in which the primary issue is the development of water resources (since pollution is still very localized) and in which structured consultation and the negotiation of rights have still yet to be learned.