Burundi – Access to drinking water remains a significant challenge in Burundi, where only 58% of the population has access to good quality water (Unicef, SMART 2022). Pollution is a constant threat to water sources, endangering the health of people and ecosystems. More and larger protection perimeters around water sources would be a major step forward.
In the municipalities of Bubanza and Isare, Join For Water and its partners are actively involved in protecting drinking water catchment areas. Much work remains to be done to establish protection zones or perimeters (PPIs). 75 perimeters were planned, and there are still 36 remaining to be established. This is proving difficult, mainly due to the challenges of compensating local residents. After all, they must be willing to give up a piece of land where nothing can be grown and which cannot be entered. Only if there is no activity whatsoever can it serve as a purification zone around a water source. The owners of a piece of land for this purpose must receive compensation, either financially or in the form of another plot of land. This is not easy because there is a lack of resources and available land.
Obstacles and recommendations
Against this background, the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, in collaboration with Join For Water and its partners AVEDEC, ADISCO, Greening Burundi and OAP, organised a national symposium on April 10th on the establishment of these protection perimeters (PPI) and the approach to compensation. Participants included ministries, municipalities, civil society organisations, international and national NGOs, UN agencies, researchers and donors.
The symposium aimed to:
- facilitate dialogue and exchange between all parties present;
- improve understanding of the legal and institutional framework for protection perimeters;
- identify the challenges on the ground in setting up the PPI;
- to define concrete ways to ensure fair and sustainable compensation for the communities concerned.
The participants identified the main obstacles to the protection of water extraction areas: administrative delays, a lack of coordination and the absence of compensation budgets.
The symposium produced a number of concrete recommendations:
- better governance,
- financing compensation by including it in project budgets and local government budgets,
- involving local authorities,
- reactivating national committees, and
- raising community awareness.
With renewed insights and greater synergy between sectors and between government and the population, this symposium provided leverage for targeted action.
Read more about our activities in Burundi
Read more about our partners AVEDEC, Adisco, Greening Burundi and OAP.
