Activities
Better access to ecosystem services, such as water for agriculture, and ecosystem restoration, that’s what it’s all about. Together with partners such as Eco-Bénin, Join For Water focuses on reforestation and agroforestry, planting trees and shrubs on agricultural land. This combination ensures better water management and reduces erosion. The agriculture should guarantee more stable income for the farmers. The inhabitants are helping to remove the rampant water hyacinth in the canals, so that transport through the canals runs more smoothly and fish have sufficient oxygen.
The civil society organisations are trained on rights and obligations so that they can stand up for the protection of freshwater supplies.
At the same time, it is important to build up and spread knowledge: research is needed into, for example, energy from biomass or the ecologically responsible restoration of mangroves. Our partner INSTI is responsible for this research.
What preceded
Join For Water has been active in Benin since 1994 and has worked intensively on achieving access to (drinking) water, better hygiene, guiding the municipalities in the construction of the drinking water infrastructure … This was the case in the departments of Atacora and Alibori in the north, central Donga and the Mono-Couffo region in the south-west.
The emphasis has always been on the sustainable management of the infrastructure. To this end, (drinking water) committees learned to be responsible for maintenance and repair in the event of breakdowns, with the collection of user contributions as an essential component.
Food security was given a lot of attention, with a focus on water for horticultural activities and more efficient irrigation methods.
Several latrines were installed in schools and a lot of effort was put into social marketing to convince families to build family latrines.
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With support of Flanders
