Niono, Mali, West Africa |
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The Collector of Niono, Mali (ENGLISH VERSION) from Loïc de Lame on Vimeo. Le Collecteur de Niono, Mali (VERSION FRANÇAISE) |
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Niono's collector pond is a noxious mix of excess water, garbage and human waste. |
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The ProblemThe town of Niono is in dire need of a sanitation management system. A naturally created gully runs through the center of town and becomes entirely saturated/inundated during the rainy season. For many years, a pumping mechanism emptied and distributed the water from the collector. In 1998, the pump broke. Now, the collector is a noxious mix of excess water, town garbage, household runoff, and human waste. All of this exists right in the center of town. The result is not just an eyesore, it is also the perfect breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Malaria is the most prevalent disease in Niono. It is EWB's hope that addressing the standing noxious water problem will result in a healthier community with a reduced malaria rate. |
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Niono Reborn - Artist Michael Eade |
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The Solid Waste Management ProjectThe collector needs to be cleaned out and the areas surrounding the collector need a waste management program to prevent this problem from occurring again. Once this clean-up is complete, the NGO ALPHALOG is willing to transfer these clean-up and solid waste management practices to the community. |
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The Niono Storm Water Management Rehabilitation ProjectNiono also needs a system for handling storm water runoff in order to prevent stagnant water from pooling in the town EWB-RMP goal is to develop a sustainable and complete overhaul approach to Niono's storm water management system. The project design will ensure that there will be little to no negative impacts on the surface water and shallow groundwater water balance from performing project tasks.
The project team will have to work with the community of Niono to develop a feasible and appropriate solution. |
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The trash filled rainwater collector |
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The rain collector during the rainy season. |
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Further Details about NionoSafe drinking water in the town comes from deep-drilled Saudi pumps; however wells in family concessions have a very high water table and are easily contaminated. The canals are about 8 feet wide and 8 feet deep; they have a slow current flow. Sewers line each street in the town and run by gravity into ditch drains that flow into the collector. Thus, the collector and its feeding “gutter”, (which runs through the center of the town), formed naturally over the years during heavy rains. In recent years the collector has become so large that it is infiltrating the canal system, which is fed by a dam in the Niger River, 80 kilometers south in Markala. The terrain is flat, and Niono sits in a low and level area which was an ancient tributary of the Niger, which allows the water from the dam to flow north toward Niono and beyond. |
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The broken collector pump |
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Niono has electricity, and large machinery can be obtained for grading and hauling of materials. Local building materials such as cement, rebar, and tole metal for roofing can all be found in Niono, and ordered from Segou and Bamako. Although most houses are made of mud bricks, many in Niono are mud brick covered with cement, and the more affluent citizens have cement houses, made with cement, cement blocks, and rebar. |
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Project status: In February 2008, some of the group travelled to Niono, Mali to view the situation and make connections with people and groups who will be helping us. Here are the Meetings we attended: Facts we gathered during the trip: The city officials turned on the pump, which worked for ~10 seconds, then stopped and reversed flow for ~20 seconds and then the power failed. The collector is filled with plastic bags, paper trash, human waste. Never witnessed anyone dumping into the collector. The collector runs through the entire town. Precipitation data: Niono was founded in the year 1937. The French designers planned to use the area where the town now resides as rice fields. They had planned the residents to live in other villages on higher ground. The town let people live in these areas, but they don't own their homes. The Office du Niger owns the land and lets the villagers live on it. This didn't encourage residents to make improvements on their property. Recently people who have lived in town for a while can buy their homes. The area North of town for 80 KM will be part of the MCC Alatoona road project. 1995 census showed population 54,000; 26868 men and 27383 female Ethnic Tribes/Groups in the area (virtually everyone in the Niono region grows rice): For water the people of Niono do the following: The food people eat: People generally have enough food to eat. Some of the nomads and remote villages went hungry during the famines a few years ago, but in Niono, rice and food are easier to come by. Most people generally don't eat pork or drink alcohol (due to Muslim food laws). All women breast feed their babies (as far as we could tell). Toilets were as follows: There are very few trash cans. Only 20% of the people use the trash collection service that exists. The trash is collected by donkey carts and placed in trash transfer stations. Eventually it will be taken to the main landfill when that is completed (soon they say). Most people get around town by walking, bicycle, donkey carts, motor scooters, some cars. Households have access to these things: Buses to other cities are available on a daily basis, but intermittent (buses leave when they are full). City electrical power is intermittent and fails very often The Dutch built a bunch of houses on high land that is now used for conferences and can be rented. The area is called the CEFE. They have 100 beds, 6 beds per house. They charge 30,000 CFA/person/month, 5,200 CFA/person/night/house (includes electricity), 400,000 CFA/month/house with cook/handyman/gardener/cleaner (food/elec. is extra). Electricity is 100,000 CFA/month, water is free, there is a generator for backup (lights only, no AC) ALPHALOG is building 5000 latrines a year. The Office du Niger can dig canals or plow areas with their equipment and employees. They charge as follows: Volunteers should drink bottled water (available in town), or from the 60m Saudi wells. We got a report from ALPHALOG about water quality. We learned about the MCC's Alatona Irrigation Project ($260 million) Here is a list of all the web sites I've accessed for Mali info: |
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