2007

Construction of a well for the supply of potable water in Bouanzé, Mauritania

The context

The majority of the population of Mauritania depends economically on agriculture and livestock, and many, both nomads and peasants, have been forced to migrate to cities since 70's and 80's last century, when the processes of drought in Sahel was accentuated. For many towns, such as Bouanze, access to water is a vital issue that has a direct impact on emigrating. Bouanze is a village located to the South of Mauritania, head of the Guidimakha region, and has, approximately, 10,000 inhabitants, which are mainly from the Sonike -an ethnic group.

Some young intellectuals of the town created in 1975 the Association des Frères Unis de Bouanze (AFUB) to promote the development of the town. Currently they have among its members some 400 men of Bouanze living in the Spain, France, Holland, Belgium and Portugal, among others.

The project to evaluate

The project, which wants to give drinking water to the inhabitants of Bouanze, was born in the 1980s. The AFUB had financed technical studies before to probe the area in search of water, but the project only could perform from the moment in which a group of Bouanze immigrants living in Catalonia went to Santa Perpètua Solidària looking for funding. From then, a dynamic process of cooperation could be initiated for projects shared between the Mauritanian migrants and the local NGO.

The evaluated project consisted of drilling a deep well, the construction of a network of water with 15 points to supply it, the management of drinking water by a Management Committee -composed of 15 people-, as well as carrying out awareness-raising activities in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda. The implementation of this project gave rise, in turn, to the birth of another: transform the garden of the municipality in agricultural exploitation and promote the agricultural cooperative of women.