Water for Everyone | Togo

"Access to safe water is a fundamental human need and therefore a basic human right” Kofi Annan

 Water for Everyone  is a 3-country border-to-border initiative encompassing Liberia, The Gambia, and Togo – to provide safe water to the entire population. This is a goal we share with many other organizations and requires the collective effort of all parties (and the generosity of amazing donors like you!) to collaborate for successful and sustainable implementation.

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In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly agreed upon 17  Sustainable Development Goals .  Sustainable Development Goal 6  (SDG6 or SDG 6) calls for clean water and sanitation for all people. In light of SDG6, Water Charity’s goal is to provide a basic supply of potable water to every person in Togo by the end of 2023.

Togo is a small but densely populated country in Western Africa, ranking 127th in the world for size, with a population of around 8 million. Being one of the narrowest countries in the world, with only 71 miles east-west between the borders of Ghana and Benin, it stretches south to north and as a result exhibits different climate.

The southern part of the country is a low coastal plain with extensive lagoons and marshes, while further north is the savanna – dry and arid. 67% of the country’s land is considered Agricultural, with Togo’s main exports being Cocoa Beans, Coffee, and Peanuts.

The Water for Everyone initiative kicked off in Togo in 2018 as 15 borehole wells were implemented in the Centrale region under the direction of Anne Jeton, hydrologist and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.

Current estimates are that 55% of rural communities in Togo do not have access to an improved water source.

Water Charity’s goal is to work in collaboration with the Ministry of Hydrology and the Ministry of Health in Togo to bring improved water solutions, as well as training and education on basic sanitation to all these rural communities.

GPS-enabled mobile technology and GIS mapping are absolutely revolutionizing the data collection process in developing countries across the world. So far in Togo, Water Charity has trained over 50 individuals in collecting using tablets and smartphones, none of whom had ever done so before.

Thanks to Darrel Larson of Sawyer International, who conducted a training of surveyors in April 2019, an initial team of 10 was formed in the capital city, Lomé, to kick-off a nationwide village assessment program.

The goal of the Assessments program is to visit every single village or community around the country to assess clean water needs, including questions on population size, surface water availability, and functional or non-functional wells already in place.

Working with local government officials at regional and district levels, we were able to gain access to lists of communities in each area to ensure that we would be able visit every single one.

Overview:

• Estimated Population of Togo is at 8.2 million
• We have Assessed 5,442,035 people currently (without counting urban areas, and also with 2 remaining prefectures in Plateaux to be assessed) – this is 66% of the total population
• 5,545 communities
• Average community size of 981 people

Thanks to our partners at Sparrow Data Solutions who have put together these surveys and given us access to real-time maps with all the collected data points, we have information at our fingertips for each of the 5,545 villages visited in Togo so far.

Once again, Sparrow Data Solutions has worked with Water Charity to develop a Water Testing application to be debuted in Togo. We accepted a request from the Ministry of Hydrology to begin running water testing in villages all over the Maritime region, something they have not previously been able to do.

From here we get to move to the fun part – implementation. This process is expected to take us to the end of 2023. Before we even start projects, this involves forming partnerships with local NGOs who will do most of the heavy lifting on the ground – supplying agents for filter distributions, following up on filter installs, organizing water committees, etc. It’s crucial for us to know who our major players are and have a set of standards that can apply to everyone across the board.

The fact remains that in Africa, too many well-meaning organizations build wells without considering what will happen when they break in communities too poor to buy parts or hire a contractor.

We have undertaken the daunting task of ensuring access to water for everyone, but we cannot do it by ourselves. First and foremost, we need donations to implement the projects. However, we also ask for your help in spreading the word about this amazing endeavor through all of your communications channels. If this work is of importance to you, please contact us and tell us how you would like to help.