Water pricing in Burkina Faso: ‘The authorities have instructed us to move towards prepayment’, Dr Bouraïma Kouanda. Interview by Fleur Birba for Sidwaya.
From 16 to 20 February, the 22nd International Water and Sanitation Congress and Exhibition was held in Kampala, Uganda, under the theme ‘Water and sanitation for all, a secure future for Africa’. Bouraïma Kouanda, Secretary General of Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Sanitation and Chairman of the Board of the Office National de l’Eau et de l’Assainissement (ONEA), represented the Minister of Environment, Water and Sanitation, Roger Baro, at the event. In this interview with Sidwaya, he takes stock of the conference and looks ahead to the development of the water and sanitation sector in Burkina.
Sidwaya (S): What were your expectations when you came to this 22nd International Water and Sanitation Congress and Exhibition?
Bouraïma Kouanda (B.K.): When we came here, we thought that of course we would have the opportunity to forge partnerships and develop areas of cooperation. We also thought it would be an opportunity to meet our partners with whom we are already working, in particular the partnership within the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which is taking a decisive and interesting turn, and other partners at African and international level.
S: Have your expectations been met?
B.K.: They have been met, because at an international level we were already interested in the new technologies that could help us facilitate the water service in Burkina. We met with three Chinese companies involved in prepayment. This is the cash power system that SONABEL uses for its customers. I pay and I use. After the bi-monthly bill didn’t work, the authorities asked us to switch to prepayment. So this was a real opportunity for us to visit the companies that use this system and talk to them. We’ve already had three meetings with a company called SH Meter. During these meetings, we worked individually with the people in charge, as well as with the whole ONEA team present at the conference.
To get a better understanding of how to test their tools, they have decided to join us in Burkina from March to carry out a first pilot experiment. They will send us 30 to 50 meters to install in homes and then monitor them regularly for six months to see if any corrections need to be made. We wanted to do the pilot before we made any commitments. We applied the same principle to the other two companies, because when it comes to technology you have to go with the best deal. Each of the three companies will come and do their pilot and we’ll choose the best offer. The other two, however, have not yet set a date for their arrival. We also met with partners who are very advanced in new approaches to sanitation. We exchanged contacts to see how we could support each other. These approaches mainly involve the recycling of faecal sludge, which is one of our problems. We provide households with latrines, but what do we do with the faecal sludge?
It’s a real concern for us. We’ve been looking for partners who can provide relatively simple mechanisms that also facilitate recovery. In terms of AES, we met with the Niger delegation in particular, and we quickly set up an AES platform. The aim is also to see how we can strengthen cooperation between ESA member states on water and sanitation. The Nigerians talked about their public water supply in rural areas, and they seem to have found some interesting approaches that they would like to share with us. We got a lot out of the conference and we’re happy.
S: What is the rate of access to water and sanitation in Burkina Faso?
B.K.: The rate of access to drinking water in 2024 is 78.5%. The sanitation rate is 28.5%, but the final statistics for 2024 are not yet available.
S: Will Burkina Faso be able to meet the 2030 deadline of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in terms of access to water and sanitation for all?
B.K.: We have to be realistic, it’s quite difficult to get there because we are in a context of mobilisation of water resources that seems more or less difficult. In rural areas, the population is mainly supplied by groundwater, so we have to drill boreholes, even though 80% of the territory is in a crystalline zone (an area where water has to be drawn from faults). To do that, you have to do some geophysical prospecting to find out where the water is and then drill. We drill far more negative wells (up to 50%) than positive wells, which is exorbitantly expensive.
This is the hydrogeological context in Burkina Faso. The sedimentary zone is only 20%. That is where we can get water at the right depth. The instructions we have received are to improve our knowledge of water resources, whether in the crystalline or sedimentary basement. This will enable us to better understand our aquifers and produce very high flows to serve many communities at the same time. Today we’re talking about multi-village drinking water supply. In other words, we’re very optimistic that with these new approaches that we’re developing, we’re going to make significant and interesting progress in water supply, but we have to be realistic about achieving universal access by 2030.
When it comes to sanitation, we are also constantly innovating because there are many aspects to sanitation. First of all, there is our financial capacity, but also our sociological realities. With the community-led total sanitation approach, we put communities at the centre. They do the work themselves, with technical support from the government. With the trend towards an end to open defecation, we will achieve a high rate. We are gradually moving towards community-based approaches to ensure that the community takes responsibility, with technical support from the state.
S: What is the financial contribution for water?
B.K.: It’s a parafiscal tax introduced by a law passed in 2009. The implementing decree was issued in 2015. It sets the amounts to be paid when water is used for industrial purposes, for example. This law allows the state to recover money from anyone who contributes to the pollution of water resources and from anyone who diverts the course of a watercourse. Unfortunately, we do not apply this law 100% at the moment. It’s mainly the ‘user pays’ aspect that works. This allows the state to collect at least 3 to 6 billion FCFA every year. Since 2020, we have been regularly collecting an average of 5 billion FCFA per year.
There is also a sanitation tax. This is deducted from ONEA customers’ bills to contribute to sanitation. This tax enables ONEA to provide sanitation support to households. This can be in the form of technical assistance or the donation of slabs to complete latrines. But the current trend at ONEA is to support local authorities or decentralised structures to ensure that we can manage faecal sludge. This is how the tax will be used from now on. We need to develop collective mechanisms for waste management.
S: What difficulties have you encountered?
B.K.: Among other difficulties, there is the hydrogeological context of Burkina and the need to mobilise substantial financial resources to invest in water and sanitation, because investment in water is extremely expensive. That is why we have set up endogenous mechanisms such as the financial contribution for water and the sanitation tax. The state is mobilising itself to take responsibility, not only by mobilising endogenous resources, but also by mobilising the Treasury Fund. We were recently received by the highest authorities, who gave us guidelines in this direction. If you don’t have a win-win partnership, you don’t need one.
S: What are your prospects?
B.K.: It really means working on prioritising the water and sanitation sector, improving our knowledge and the skills we already have. We need to work on providing clear water maps so that when we are asked, for example, where the water will be for the city of Ouagadougou in 2040, 2050, 2075 or even later, we can give an answer. We also have to continue to improve the service, because the current vision is to move towards a much more developed service through the drinking water supply system, which we call multi-village drinking water supply or autonomous water stations. We also need to build infrastructure from the Christine borehole so that we can provide drinking water to localities or regions.
S: Do you have any advice for consumers?
B.K.: I would urge consumers and the general public to manage and use water properly and to clean up their surroundings. We see a lot of waste, but water treatment is very expensive. If you let the blue gold flow, you’re pouring money down the drain. Make yourself available so that if there are initiatives to support you, you can do so. In fact, we intend to launch actions to mobilise endogenous resources in collaboration with LONAB.
Interview by Fleur BIRBA
