The only way is up...

Well, I actually started writing this blog two weeks ago, being a little depressive and about to state that things have not got any better out here…but since then things have got a lot better…

A few weeks ago, we went on another site visit to Kurume, to measure the flows at each of the tap stands, and various points along the distribution pipe. Despite a few leaks along the pipe, and the fact that a few of the tap stands were not working (as the pipes had been damaged by the erosion of the road due to the incessant rains), the flow throughout the system was generally good, and sufficient. On a site visit a few weeks later, the villagers showed us that they have a lot more working tap stands than we had previously been led to believe. They are all classed as private connections, but there are at least nine of them!

On this site visit, we also got to visit the other villages which we would planning to provide water to: Ndoi, Ngolo Bolo, and Konye town itself. These visits proved more than interesting:

Ndoi

Ndoi has one India Mark II pump, used only for washing and not for drinking, as the water quality is poor. It also has one tapstand, with water constantly coming out due to there being no pressure in the pipes. This does supply a small amount of water during the dry season, but the villagers also have to rely on water from a small stream, and a stream 1.5km across a large river.

Ngolo Bolo

This village has three tapstands, although two of them are confined to drips, the other one still flows very vey slowly. There were large queues of children waiting at all of them to collect water in their buckets. The flow was so slow that it took nearly 3 minutes to fill a 17 litre bucket.

During the rainy season, there is an adequate water supply from a small waterfall – but this dries up for 5 months of the year, meaning the villagers have to wait in even longer queues or cross the river to get water. There is a well system, but this water is contaminated. Ngolo Bolo has the densest population, so when illness strikes, it does so badly here.

Konye

The headquarters of the subdivision (and hence the highest population), Konye has the largest number of houses, schools (6) and the divisional hospital. There was a large cholera epidemic here in 1990-91 due to drought, and diarrhoea and dysentery are generally prevelant There was one tapstand here, with a large selection of water containers waiting to be filled due to the lack of sufficient flow coming from it.

OSRI

One large finding that came from this site visit was that a system had already been designed in 1994 by an NGO called OSRI (Organisation for Sustainable Rural Infrastructure) based in Kumba (our hometown). The system had been designed for five villages – Kukaka, Ndoi, Ngolo Bolo, Konye and Dikome. The catchment had already been constructed, as had some of the piping (the tapstands already mentioned here are part of this system), and even a storage tank, but the funding had run out before the system could be finished. This was a substantial finding, as this project was effectively what we had been brought out to do…!

So, following a visit to OSRI’s offices, we have now relocated to working with them. They have a file with substantial information about the Konye project, which we have been working through - the aim will be to update this, with a view of getting phased funding opportunities to allow it to be constructed. They also have many other projects which we are interested in working on! So things are now getting better…

We have also started working on the side with a charity called the Rural Health Foundation, and will soon be going on a visit to a village called Matoh to investigate why a system installed there failed after a year.

So, things are starting to look up…!

Role of a development worker

First of all, apologies for not keeping this blog up-to-date. As is to be expected from a lot of developing countries, progress is hampered by the mañana approach - that is, no matter how much you ask for things to be done, it's necessary to try for days, if not weeks, to achieve even the smallest of things. That, and a complete change of expectations by us as to what we can achieve, have made the past month or so quite frustrating.

Since the last time I wrote on this, we have been able to visit the Kurume village twice. The journeys are interesting, to say the least - four of us squashed into the back of a taxi (and two people plus the driver in the front) for a two-hour trip on appalling roads. If there's just one period of heavy rainfall (and we are currently in the wet season), the roads become near impassable - on our second trip there a lorry had blocked the main 'carriageway' as it had tipped up through slipping in the mud. This road is labelled N8 - that is, the National Highway 8, which connects the south west province with the north west province, yet for at least four months of the year, is not suitable at all.

During the visits we had the pleasure of meeting the village chief, Chief Epie, and the elders, who are effectively his advisers. Cameroon is a very traditional country, and, even like many projects in developed countries, there is a large amount of community participation involved, and the chief of a village/town has to agree to every one that is made. Also, it is not possible for us to just go into a village and ask to speak to the locals - this has to be agreed to by the chief.

Thus, these two initial visits have been an opportunity for us to talk to the chief and elders to find out more about what they want out of us as part of the water project - we also had tours of Kurume and the existing water system, and have been shown the nearby village of Kukaka, which it is hoped the Kurume water system can be extended to.

These visits were a large eye-opener for us:

• Kurume has a population of around 700 people (estimates that have been told to us have been anything between 700 and 7,000!) with six working communal tapstands (although some of the taps are faulty) and three that are either broken or have been taken out of service. In theory, each male villager should pay 3000 francs a year (around £4), and each female villager 1500 francs a year (around £2) to help pay for the maintenance. Unfortunately, very few villagers pay this, so the maintenance budget is inadequate to do much of what needs to be done.

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• Kurume does not have sufficient tools which would make carrying out maintenance easier, and, although some villagers are able to replace the tapheads, they are unable to for most of the year due to lack of funds. There are also nine private connections to houses, for those who can afford to have them, although many more of the villagers would like one to their house.

• During the dry season the water system is restricted to use in the morning (6am – 9am) and evening (2pm – 8pm) – the villagers collect the water at these times using buckets to store the water. There is no limit to how much water the villagers can collect during this time and enough water is available to water cocoa plants during the dry season! There is also, apparently, no incidence of water-bourne disease, such as cholera or typhoid, and the water, so we were told, tastes quite nice.

• Kukaka, on the other hand, has a few hand dug wells. However these are often too close to the toilets leading to poor hygiene. They have one India Mark II hand pump, which runs dry during the dry season, and their only other water source is a nearby stream. If it rains runoff, including that from cocoa farms, pollutes the water turning it brown. This stream also dries up during the dry season and so villagers have to travel 5km to get water. There is also, apparently, incidences of water-bourne diseases, sometimes including cholera.

• Konye, the sub division's capital, has a source which also dries up during the dry season, and there is a lot of illness during this time

Technically, our work here should consist of maintenance work to the Kurume water system, training the locals how to maintain the system themselves, and mapping out an extension of the current system to other villages, such as Kukaka, Ngoi and Konye, to help RCSC obtain funding. Should we, as development workers, really be doing this? Maintenance work is already carried out on what seems like a regular basis by the Kurume villagers, who are trained in what to do, and so should be able to train village youths on how to carry out maintenance. The water that Kurume has is already sufficient for their needs - even during the dry season - and it should not be a foreign development worker's role to come in just to help replace tapheads, add some tapstands, and provide tools!

In effect, should it even be our role to try and gets funds to provide the other villages with water? The Kurume system was built in 1970 by Community Development, a governmental organisation (although on a visit to their office in Kumba, the office was pretty much empty!) - why have they not ever considered using government money to either extend the Kurume system, or build new, clean water systems in the other villages?

Apologies for my cynicism, but, despite the good work that could be done out here, and in most developing countries, part of me still thinks - should I really be the one that comes to do it...

How the money never filters down...

In a study conducted in 2008, Cameroon was placed 141st out of 180 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index. It's not uncommon, even for the locals, to be stopped on the roadside by police and asked to pay a bribe or their car would get impounded. Even on the way from the airport to our city, we were stopped by policemen who looked at our passports, and asked all sorts of questions as to why we were here, why we were travelling at night, and why we had so much luggage. Corruption is rife in government, and it's not unknown for government officials to embezzle millions, but to still get promoted within government.

As many Cameroonians have told me, this corruption is keeping the country where it is now. With the next Presidential elections looming in 2011, a lot of money designated for building roads, houses and infrastructure will be siphoned off and used for campaigning across the country. The main political party here also normally promise to use funds to improve local infrastructure - in the run up to the elections, it is not uncommon to see diggers and other equipment set up ready to rebuild the roads, only for the equipment to disappear shortly after, and the work left uncompleted.

On a visit to the Kurume region last week, where out water project will take place, we heard how this has affected the local community. The road to the Kurume villages are in a disastrous state, having not been maintained for decades, and during the rainy season, they are impassable. The water supply that is currently located there has not been improved since 1962, hence our reason for being here. It is just such a shame that when there is so much knowledge in the country, and an isolated but substantial amount of wealth, it is foreign engineers and foreign money that have to come into the country to improve the lives of the locals.

Cameroon - statistics

The country of Cameroon lies in sub-Saharan Africa, with a population of around 18.5 million. Despite Douala, the largest city, being the most expensive city in Africa (moreso than Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Madrid), 40% of the population still live below the national poverty line. only 68% of the adult population can read, life expectancy at birth is 50,and the infant mortality is 87 deaths per 1000 live births.

One of the key aspects to sustaining life is access to an improved water source. Only 70% of the Cameroonian population has this. Over the next six months, thanks to the support of EWB-UK, myself and two others from the UK will be helping to improve this situation for 20,000 people in villages surrounding our new home town, Kumba. With community participation, we hope to ensure that the new system is maintained by the local people, to ensure its survival.

I will try to post regular updates here on our progress,but to start - we have arrived fine, the people are very friendly, and it is hot and humid. The real work of making a difference here will start very soon.