Niono, Mali |
|
![]() |
|
Niono's collector pond is a noxious mix of excess water, garbage and human waste. |
|
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. |
|
Niono Reborn - Artist Michael Eade |
|
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. |
|
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. |
|
The trash filled rainwater collector |
|
The rain collector during the rainy season. |
|
|
|
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. |
|
The broken collector pump |
|
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. |
|


