Bamako, Mali

Bamako is sited on the River Niger and, as the capital, has quickly expanded due to political, administrative, commercial and cultural functions.

With an estimated population of 1.3 million people and increased rural-urban migration, the Bamako District is under stress and the number of slums is increasing. Lack of space on the left bank has led to recent population growth on the right bank of the river.

The city is made up of six Communes, including the programme area of Commune VI, which were created in 1978 and cover 70 sq kms. Commune VI lies to the south east and is located on the right bank of the Niger river. The total population of Commune VI was estimated in 2007 to be 264,000. This is a predominantly low income area and is characterised by large neighbourhoods of informal housing.

Water in Commune VI is currently provided from a mixture of sources, including the city network, private wells, public water points using boreholes and small private distribution networks from boreholes. Much of the population relies either on unsafe water from polluted shallow groundwater or on water vendors who take water from EDM sources and re-sell it at high prices.

WSUP works in partnership with the Commune to strengthen contracting and procurement processes for construction and management of water and sanitation services and support the Commune administration in the identification and sourcing of resources for pro-poor service delivery. WSUP also supports EDM (Energie de Mali) in the development of a resource mobilisation strategy and in the development of a capacity building programme.

Work on sanitation is delivered through a sanitation marketing approach, working with civil society.

Key Achievements to Date

Demonstrated models of service delivery to the urban poor

• Sustainable water service improvements for 6,850 urban poor consumers in Bamako, demonstrating both networked and decentralised models relevant for the city’s total urban poor population of 450,000

• Approach to improving school sanitation demonstrated in schools in poor neighbourhoods

• Existing service points mapped for the city using GIS, providing the basis for municipal planning  

Strengthened institutional capacity to sustain improvement process

• Assessment of the barriers to improving service delivery to the poor completed

WSUP acknowledges the support of USAID (under the West Africa Water Initiative II) in the delivery of this programme.