Launching ceremony of a drinking water management project in Mali

Providing 560,000 rural people with drinking water for the 15 coming years

Picture caption, from left to right: Minister for Energy and Water Mr. Malick ALHOUSSEINI speaking and Thierry BARBOTTE, Chairman of ODIAL SOLUTIONS group and General Manager of UDUMA MALI, speaking.

The UDUMA consortium, composed of the Malian Direction National de l’Hydraulique of Mali (DNH MALI), UDUMA MALI S.A. (ODIAL SOLUTIONS’ Malian subsidiary), and the NGOs SNV MALI, AKVO and AQUA FOR ALL, officially launched the UDUMA Mali project, in attendance of Minister for Energy and Water Mr. Malick ALHOUSSEINI, in Bougouni on Thursday 11th January 2018. The project aims at providing 560,000 rural people with drinking water in SIKASSO region (Mali) for the 15 coming years. “Starting 2018, UDUMA MALI will enter into public service delegation contracts with the first 11 out of the 50 targeted municipalities”, states enthusiastically Thierry BARBOTTE, Chairman of ODIAL SOLUTIONS group and General Manager of UDUMA MALI.

3 Malians out of 4 live in rural areas and provide themselves with drinking water by means of manual pumps. However, 1 pump out of 2 is regularly out of service. “This existing situation implies more time-consuming and exhausting water chores, increases the price of pump upkeep, affects the health conditions and contributes to the rural exodus”, explains Nicolaas VAN DER WILK, Operations Manager of UDUMA. Furthermore, unused boreholes because of defective pumps represent nearly 66 billion CFA francs (100 million euros) in lost public investments.

Creation of nearly 1,500 jobs in the SIKASSO Region

The project, under the tutelage of the Ministry of Energy and Water, is offering an alternative to this situation for the SIKASSO region. The Malian local authorities will be entrusting the management and operation of 1,400 water points equipped with manual pumps to the newly created private operator UDUMA MALI S.A. The operator will guarantee a continuous water service (72-hour max downtime) for at least 15 years and renew a large part of the equipment.

UDUMA MALI will be charging a fixed user fee per consumed volume (500 CFA francs/m3, 0.76 euro). The water pumps will be equipped with digital water meters. The water service is provided by a caretaker (1 on each pump) and a mechanic (1 per 50 pumps), whose remuneration evolves with water consumptions. The new water service delivery model is expected to create nearly 1,500 jobs in the SIKASSO Region.

UDUMA MALI injects 1.3-billion CFA francs (2-million euros)

The selection of the 11 first municipalities for start of operations in 2018 is based on an analysis of the water points. “We have just ended an on-site survey including the inventory of the water points and an assessment of the current payment and consumption methods in these 11 municipalities”, specifies Abdoul Hamid ABDOU, UDUMA Project Manager for the NGO SNV-MALI.

As a reminder, UDUMA MALI injects 1.3-billion CFA francs (2-million euros) private funds (equities, impacts investors, banks, etc.) in a project whose budget amounts to 3.3 billion CFA francs (5 million euros). The remaining 2 billion CFA francs (3 million euros) are provided through a subsidy from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of which 600 million CFA francs (1 million euros) dedicated to public awareness raising (SNV-MALI), reporting (AQUA FOR ALL), mapping and monitoring (AKVO).