Government to sink 4000 boreholes in arid rural areas

The government has launched a US$ 3.2 million programme to bring clean drinking water to rural Burkina Faso. The two-year programme launched this week, aims to drill 4000 water bore holes throughout the country. The government says that by the time the programme is completed 95 per cent of the population should have access to clean drinking water. “We have the conviction that investing in water and sewerage will have a quick and significant effect on poverty reduction,” Salif Diallo the Minister for Water, Agriculture and Water Resources told IRIN on Tuesday. More than 80 per cent of Burkina Faso’s 12 million people live in rural areas. Agriculture, according to the government’s own statistics, accounts for 45 per cent of gross domestic product. The main cash crops in Burkina Faso are cotton and groundnuts. But the government is keen to boost production of other crops. As well as drilling bore holes, the government plans to build 114 water reservoirs. This water will be used for irrigation schemes, targeting agriculture. The government government anticipates a substantial rise in cereal production as a result of the irrigation campaign. “We will also put a stress on women, as they have a key role in the poverty reduction strategy”, Minister Diallo emphasised. “We expect the large number of reservoirs and other water sources will ease their plight and allow them to undertake income generating activities”. The fetching and carrying of water for household is work for women and children in Burkina Faso. It is not uncommon for villagers to have to walk many kilometres to fetch water for the family’s needs. Funding for the programme has been secured from a wide variety of international donors. Burkina Faso is in West Africa’s Sahelian belt, an arid land area on the southern fringes of the Sahara desert. Water shortages, drought and desertification are perennial problems. Since 2001, the government has gone to extraordinary lengths to tackle water shortages, including firing salt crystals mixed with chemicals into the sky to induce rainfall.