In the “Country of Honest People”, APEFE is completing an irrigation project that frees women from the chore of watering. It is also helping to build a great wall… a green one!

“Before this, we had to use watering cans and that was hard. Since this irrigation system was installed, we’ve been able to engage in other activities”; “Day and night, we work, we sell, we get money. If only you could start that up in other countries too!”: two significant testimonies voiced during Minister-President Rudy Demotte’s visit, in May, to the PADI site in the district of Tampouy in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). PADI stands for Programme d’Appui au Développement de l’Irrigation (Irrigation Development Support Programme). The programme has been run by APEFE (Belgian association for the promotion of education and training abroad) since 2011 and comes to its conclusion this year. 

On a four-hectare site belonging to the association of forestry workers of Burkina Faso, about a hundred women grow tomatoes, onions, garlic, aubergines, cucumbers and fruit. A market garden, an arboretum and various plots of land share the space where the relentless heat is gently filtered by the vegetation. There are young baobab trees, the leaves of which are among the ingredients of a local sauce called toèga, and moringa trees, which are very rich in vitamin C – containing more than an orange! – as well as calcium, potassium and protein. Incidentally, Rudy Demotte was invited to plant one. Value is added to some crops for selling in the form of juices, jams, (shea) butter or preserves (sumbala, a local spice), etc. 

At the heart of the operation is a self-contained irrigation system known as drip irrigation or “drop-by-drop”: “Water is circulated through pipes spread across the plots of land and pierced with little holes,” explains programme administrator Didier Woirin, who adds that this system is very water and energy efficient. Groundwater is extracted via a pump powered by solar energy that separates the sand. 40 m³ of water a day can be pumped, and up to 70 m³ if more solar panels are added. PADI also includes education: there’s a classroom where women can learn how to read and write and learn about soil fertility methods. Lastly, the town hall has got involved by offering a composting platform.

This APEFE initiative, spread over four provinces, was introduced to support a strategy begun in 2003 by the Country of Honest People, to ensure that irrigation plays a key role in agricultural output. Three results were related to research and a fourth to capacity-building. Was it successful? “Without a doubt,” replies Didier Woirin, “thanks, among other things, to the scientific support from the University of Liège, which enabled operational tools to be put in place”. The Walloon Region also provided technical assistance. “This PADI area is contributing to improving the living conditions of women as much as to the knowledge of the scientific community,” summed up a delighted Burkina Faso Director of Irrigation to Rudy Demotte. Today, the initiative is able to stand on its own two feet.

Holding back the desert

Another programme to which the APEFE is contributing: the Great Green Wall, an African idea carried out through NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development, African inter-state initiative). What is its fundamental principle? To build a 15-km wide strip of woodland from Dakar to Djibouti, in order to slow down desertification. The concept has evolved meanwhile. So, for example, in Burkina Faso, it is no longer a mere strip but, rather, an intervention zone that covers a third of the country. “Revegetating the Sahel is possible,” says Didier Woirin, “by planting fodder crops and forestry plantations and hedgerows, and with the active cooperation of the local authorities and communities.” APEFE assists in strengthening the competent institutions and implements pilot initiatives with various partners.

Lastly, a third programme in Burkina Faso focuses on developing physiotherapy, with the creation of a school by 2022.  For the time being, twelve physiotherapists are undergoing training in Cotonou and one doctor is training in Abidjan. Long live the South-South partnership! For its part, the Burkina Faso government is funding the training, in Belgium, of five physiotherapy graduates. 

These three APEFE programmes are funded by the Belgian Development Cooperation (DGD) and receive financial backing from WBI. Moreover, Belgian aid is increasing, since Burkina Faso has, in the meantime, rejoined the very select list of priority countries for Belgian cooperation. 

François Janne d’Othée 

This article is taken from W+B Revue no. 132, to which you can subscribe free of charge!

You can also find an article on the same subject on the APEFE website.