Improving Water Quality and Access in Cameroon
Kossehone is a village located about 60 miles from Maroua, the capital city of Cameroon’s Far North Region. The journey from Maroua to Kossehone takes almost three hours by car. The last 11-mile stretch of the road leading to the village square is unpaved, stony and very bumpy. In the center of the village stands a bright gray and white building, the Integrated Health Center, which was constructed by the neighboring town of Mokolo to provide residents with basic health services.
Although the health center opened in 2007, it functioned without running water.
Manga Djakdjinkreo is a laboratory technician at the health center in Kossehone that functioned for close to 17 years without running water.
Photo by Mabel Chenjoh/CRS
“Every morning, we used containers to fetch water from a borehole located about 328 yards from the center," says Manga Djakdjinkreo, assistant laboratory technician. "Sometimes, we paid villagers to carry water for the center. I had to disinfect the water before I could use it in the laboratory.”
During the rainy season, the staff and patients of the health center collected rainwater in containers to meet their needs and to manage center’s activities.
“Since September, there is constant running water now in the hospital.”
The lack of running water greatly affected the day-to-day functioning of the health center and the well-being of the staff and patients.
“The hospital was hardly clean,” says Albert Kampete, head of the health center. “There was little or no water to do thorough cleaning. The staff could not even wash in the bathrooms. Patients and caregivers fetched water from an open well and sometimes from unreliable sources.”
After close to 17 years of an acute water crisis, in 2024 Catholic Relief Services and Caritas Maroua-Mokolo constructed a solar-powered mini water supply system at the health center. It was constructed during the second phase of the Stabilization and Reconciliation in the Lake Chad Region project.
A solar-powered mini-water supply system constructed by CRS at the Kossehone health center provides running water to the facility.
Photo by Mabel Chenjoh/CRS
The project, which was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development via the German Development Bank supported families in the Far North Region by improving access to basic infrastructure and services, boosting livelihoods, reinforcing social cohesion and improving local governance.
In addition to installing the water source, CRS supported the residents of Kossehone to set up a management committee for the water supply system. This committee supervises the proper functioning of the water supply system and carries out simple repairs. The committee members also save small amounts of money for the maintenance of the water supply system.
The health workers say the water supply system has improved both the functionality of the health center and their job performance.
“Since September, there is constant running water now in the hospital,” says Albert Kampete.
“There is water in the maternity rooms, the laboratory, the wards and every part of the hospital. The hospital is cleaner. In the laboratory, we work now with ease.”
Albert Kampete is the director of the Integrated Health Center in Kossehone village in Cameroon.
Photo by Mabel Chenjoh/CRS
The families that live close to the health center also benefit from the water supply system.
“The villagers no longer fetch water from the well,” says Manga Djakdjinkreo. “Every day, children and women come to fetch water at the tap that CRS built just across from the health center.”
The Stabilization and Reconciliation in the Lake Chad Region project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development via the German Development Bank. Phase I of the project began in 2019 in Chad, Niger and Nigeria, while Phase II launched in September 2021 with an expansion into Cameroon. CRS partners with Caritas Maroua-Mokolo to implement the project in Cameroon. Since 2021, Phase II of the project has supported more than 26,000 people by improving access to basic infrastructure and services, enhancing livelihoods, reinforcing social cohesion and improving local governance.
