Map showing SOLIDARITES' operational bases in Democratic Republic of Congo in September 2005. Click on the map to enlarge

Programme to improve and extend the drinking water network in the town of Beni

Context: The town of Beni: surface area 100 km2, 176,000 inhabitants in 2002.
Beneficiaries: 137 000 people in 2003

October 12, 2005: Official inauguration of the Beni water purification plant.

The inauguration ceremony is opened in the presence of representatives from all the districts concerned.	These girls now finally have access to clean water near their homes.

The objective of this project is to ensure the permanent and sustainable supply of drinking water to the whole population of Beni. This large-scale programme commenced in 2003 and was carried out in partnership with Aquatrium (technical support throughout the project) and Aquassistance (materials and human ressources).

Specific objectives:

1. Installation of a new gravity-flow water suppy network, designed to provide drinking water for the whole town of Beni for the next 10 years according to demographic predictions.
2. Ensure technical and financial feasability of the project by improving local skills and by supporting the definition of management procedures for the water network.
3. Increasing the sense of responsibility among users of the network with regards to maintenance of the network.

Activities :

1. Defining a framework for the future management of the network.
2. Awareness activities.
3. Training REGIDESO agents and members of Beni water committees.
4. Organisation and implementation of the project.

Programme to build hydraulic and hygiene infrastructure along the route used by returning refugees between Komanda and Marabo

Beneficiaries: 21 000 people

Activities :
1. Fitting out 35 water springs for 12 600 beneficiaries
2. Building 12 wells in 12 locations for 8 400 beneficiaries
3. Building 1 050 latrines for 21 000 beneficiaries
4. Creation of 47 management committees to maintain the installed hydraulic facilties.

Emergency nutritional rehabilitation and food security programme in Kalemie and Kongolo

This programme seeks to prevent and reduce mortality due to severe malnutrition in the healthcare districts of Kalemie and Kongolo, especially among children under 5 years old, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women. In addition, the programme aims to diversify food sources through the resumption of food security activities for the most vulnerable households.

Activities :

In Kalemie healthcare district:
1. Nutritional therapy: the Kalemie Nutritional Therapy Centre (CNT) will continue its activities.
2. Nutritional supplementation: nutritional supplementation activities are to be extended to cover areas which were previously inaccessible due to insecurity.
3. Food safety:
- Demonstration plots in the Nutritional Supplementation Centres (CNS)
- Seed multiplication: Beneficiaries will be encouraged to carry out seed multiplication, in order to increase self-sufficiency, availability and access to fertilisers.
- Activities in primary schools: ten primary schools will be selected to participat in a youth education programme about a balanced diet, linked to agriculture and animal breeding.
- Activities in secondary schools: demonstration plots like family self-sufficiency plots will be planted in five secondary schools. Teachers and pupils will be trained along the same lines as the lessons given in the CNS.

In Kongolo healthcare district:
1. CNT and CNS: advanced malnutrition screening and monitoring of pockets of malnutrition which are not covered by nutritional supplementation centres (CNS).
2. Food safety: beneficiaries admitted by CNS centres will take part in training sessions carried out on the demonstration plots.

Programme to withdraw from nutritional activities in Kalemi and Nyemba healthcare districts. Assistance for displaced persons returning to Tanganyika district through the reinforcement of food safety

This programme seeks to prevent and reduce mortality due to severe malnutrition, and to reinforce food safety among displaced persons returning to Tanganyika district in the Kalemie and Nyemba healthcare district.

Beneficiaries: The total number of beneficiaries is estimated at 84 432 people (36 080 covered by nutritional and nutritional withdrawal activities, 48 352 covered by food safety activities).

Activities :

In Kalemie and Nyemba healthcare districts:
1. Nutritional therapy: CNTs (Nutritional therapy centres) until the end of March 2005.
2. Nutritional supplementation: CNS (Nutritional supplementation centres) until the end of March 2005.
3. Information sessions concerning a balanced diet: in every CNS and in 90 schools, 40 secondary schools and 50 primary schools.
4. Setting up community information relays concerning a balanced diet (300 relays already exist)
5. Food safety / diversification of food sources for the most vulnerable households
6. Demonstration plots in CNS and CNT centres: parents of malnourished children admitted to CNS and CNT centres are trained in improved agricultural techniques which aim to diversify food sources for these households.
7. Communal plots where beneficiaries can receive additional vegetable seeds, food crop seeds, cuttings and agricultural equipment.
8. Informational activties: small agricultural awareness plots are planted in primary schools near CNS centres.

Improvement of food safety among displaced populations returning to the area:
1. Distribution of agricultural fertilisers to returning households.
2. Revival of small-scale breeding activities.
3. Rehabilitation of agricultural access routes, in order to enable the evacuation of crops for sale.

Village hydraulics:
To improve water quality in these villages, springs are being captured / fitted out in villages where a healthcare centre is running. All those who have access to the healthcare centre can then benefit from clean water.

Emergency stock programme in North Kivu and North Katanga

Objective: reduce distress and improve living conditions for displaced populations in North Kivu and North Katanga.

Activities: carry out emergency assessments in case of humanitarian crises in North Kivu and North Katanga provinces, and respond to such emergencies by the establishment and distribution of stocks of food products and essential commodities.

Food distribution and humanitarian assistance programme for IDPs from Ituri province, situated along the Béni - Oicha - Kassindi route.

Beneficiaries: 47 000 displaced persons.

Objectives and activities: reduce the nutritional vulnerability of populations displaced by war, through distributions of food aid.

In Ituri (Eastern province district) :
Access to drinking water and assistance for refugees returning to the area

Objective
Building effective hydraulics infrastructure to improve water availability and quality, as well as helping to achieve better hygiene for 21,000 beneficiaries along the route used by returning refugees between Komanda and Marabo.

Activities

- Fitting out 35 water springs for 12,600 beneficiaries
- Building 12 wells at 12 sites for 8,400 beneficiaries
- Building 1,050 latrines for 21,000 beneficiaries
- Creation of 47 committees to manage and maintain the installed hydraulics facilities

Number of beneficiaries
21 000

In North Kivu province (Beni) :

A post-emergency project:

A project to rehabilitate the drinking water catchment and distribution network in the town of Beni, benefiting its population of around 180,000 people. This project consists in building a new gravity-flow water supply and distribution network, of sufficient capacity to meet the needs of the inhabitants of Beni for at least the next 10 years (according to demographic projections). This large-scale project will continue in 2004. It has been instigated in partnership with Aquatrium (technical support for the duration of the project) and Aquassistance (materials and human resources).

Emergency food aid programme for displaced persons (along the Beni - Oicha - Kassindi route)

For 5 months, from July 2004 to January 2005, this programme aims to reduce the general level of vulnerability among 47,000 displace persons along the Beni - Oicha - Kassindi route through distributions of food aid : wheat flour, peas, beans, lentils, oil, salt, etc.

In Katanga province (Kongolo and Kalemie healthcare zones) :
Nutritional support

Number of direct beneficiaries : 32,465 + 5 local charity associations in Kalemie healthcare zone, 16,835 people in Kongolo healthcare zone (the Kongolo base will close in September 2004).

- Development of food safety activities in Kongolo and Kalemie (the Kongolo base will close in September 2004);
- In Kalemie, enlargement of the nutritional support programme which commenced in March 2003;
- In Kongolo, development of community nutritional activities (the Kongolo base will close in September 2004).

Activities:
- Nutritional therapy: Kalemie CNT (Nutritional Therapy Centre). This centre is open 24 hours a day.

- Nutritional supplementation
In CNS (Nutritional Supplementation Centres). Nutritional supplementation activities are set to expand into other areas which were thus far inaccessible due to insecurity. The programme's coverage around Kalemie will be reduced, so as to be able to open centres much further away.

The CNS, both in Kongolo (the Kongolo base will close in September 2004) and in Kalemie, carry out advanced malnutrition screening and monitoring. Beneficiaries who are admitted to these CNS participate in training provided on the demonstration plots (see food safety activities below).

- Food safety
The food safety part of our programme includes several activties:

1) Demonstration plots in the CNS. The families of children admitted to the CNS receive training from an agronomist for the whole duration of the child's admission, and for a minimum of 8 weeks. As well as these families, displace families returning to the area also participate in the training sessions. During this period, they attend 8 lessons on the following topics:

- Food safety: causes of malnutrition, unbalanced diet

- Choice of land for gardening

- Delimitation of land, clearing brushwood, clearing land, incineration, stump removal, ploughing - making germinators and borders.

- Maintenance (mulching, shading, thinning out, watering, weeding, hoeing…)

- Pest control and plant protection - Harvesting and preservation

- Preparation, consumption and speculation

At the end of the training period, each family receives a kit containing vegetable or crop seeds and tools provided by the FAO. The beneficiaries then receive follow-up when they return home and those with the highest motivation will become part of a central core (around 15 families in mothers groups) who will receive follow-up during a whole cultural season. Around 10 mothers groups will be formed per CNS.

2) Seed proliferation Seed proliferation by the beneficiaires will be encouraged in orger to increase self-sufficiency.

3) Activities in primary schools Ten primary schools will be identified to take part in a youth education programme on dietary balance linked to agriculture and breeding.

4) Activities in secondary schools Demonstration plots showing family plots enabling food self-sufficiency will be planted in five secondary schools.

- Community-based nutrition (NAC)

This project, in the Kongola healthcare zone (the Kongolo base will close in September 2004) seeks to strengthen the capacity of local communities to prevent, identify and treat malnutrition. The activities of local NAC committies are focused on training and nutritional relay centres. For exemple, training covers information concerning breast-feeding, nutritional supplementation for young children, malnutrition screening and treatment within the community. This project is backed up by 297 nutritional relay centres.

The focal points of our action in DRC in 2003:

1 / Nutrition:

1 / : In Kayna, in North Kivu, our nutritional programme has been running since 2000 and includes a CNT (Nutritional Therapy Centre) which treats 50 patients per month and 6 CNS (Nutritional supplementation Centres) for around one thousand beneficiaries per month. This programme was handed back to the local health authority on February 28, 2002, however we continue to provide technical support.

Kayna:
Nutritional support, successful handover of activities to the central office of this healthcare zone in March 2003.

2 / : In Kongolo, in Katanga province, we have a CNT which treats 200 patients per month, and 12 CNS which treat 3000 people per month.

3 / : In Kalemie, also in Katanga province, we are commencing a programme in March 2003, including a CNT with a capacity of 80 patients per month, and 4 CNS with a total capacity of 500 people per month.

2 / Water:

:1 / : Programme to transport and distribute drinking water along the Beni - Erengeti route for 30,000 displaced persons. This programme was implemented for two and a half months and was completed on March 15, 2003.

2 / : Programme to rehabilitate water springs and water supplies along the Magina - Teturi route, for 86,000 people in the area (both displaced persons and residents).

3 / : Project to rehabilitate the water catchment and distribution network in the town of Beni for the whole of its population (around 180,000 people). This project consists in building a new gravity-flow water supply and distribution network with sufficient capacity to meet the needs of Beni's population for at least 10 years (according to demographic projections). This large-scale programme will continue into 2004.

3 / Distribution of food aid (flour, beans, sugar, oil, saltl) for 40,000 displaced persons along the Beni - Erengeti route.

In addition, the events which took place in the summer of 2003 around the town of Bunia, in Ituri province, caused tens of thousands of families to flee south, onto the Beni - Erengeti route. At this time, the SOLIDARITES team showed remarkable reactivity: cantines were set up, water springs were installed and drinking water tanks were provided on the sites where the displaced families found refuge, in Oicha, Erengeti and Ndalia.

Read an interview with Cyprien Fabre upon his return from an assignment in DR Congo in March 2003

In 2002 and 2003, SOLIDARITES is continuing its action in North Kivu, and has extended its activities to another province which is particularly isolated and affected by malnutrition: North Katanga. Assistance was also provided to populations affected by the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano.

In 2003, the focal points of SOLIDARITES' action will be : ensuring the move from emergency to post-emergency programmes in the vicinity of Kayna (North Kivu), providing emergency aid to displaced and local populations, implementing hydraulic programmes and combat malnutrition in the Kongolo region (North Katanga) or in Kalenie.

The drinking water point at the site supplied by SOLIDARITES water tankers.

North Kivu

In parallel with our nutritional programmes which we are progressively handing over, SOLIDARITES has launched an emergency programme to provide drinking water to displaced persons and residents in the town of Beni (Erengeti - Beni axis).

Indeed, since water resources are insufficient to meet the needs of these populations, the risk of epidemics and water-borne diseases are high. This programme, which commenced on October 28, 2002, provides 8 to 10 litres of drinking water per person per day to 1,938 families, or over 10,500 people, via 5 water tankers.

Following the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano in January 2002, SOLIDARITES provided emergency assistance to the population of Goma.

Distribution of food and essential commodities alongside the lava flow which cut through the town.
Purchase and distribution of charcoal to the whole affected population to enable them to prepare their meals.

Assistance in the provision of drinking water and distribution of essential items in several neighbouring villages in northern Goma; rehabilitation of rain collection reservoirs.
Technical support for the Goma water authority to bring the town's water supply back into service: evaluation of damage, verification of the water's quality and potability.

Consult our special report (in French)

Katanga / Kongolo region

The programmes currently being implemented in the Kongolo healthcare district, from February to July 2002, are as follows:

Nutrition
Nutritional treatment for 120 patients per month (priority given to children under five) in the Kongolo nutritional therapy centre (CNT) located in the town's referral hospital. Supplementary nutritional treatment for 1200 children per month at 11 nutritional supplementation centres (CNS) in Kongolo healthcare district.

Water
Installation of rain water capture and storage systems. Construction of manually pumped wells, and installation of springs with storage reservoirs at 13 sites throughout the Kongolo healthcare district. Training and awareness programmes for the population and medical personnel concerning water and hygiene. Implementation of a water testing laboratory.

Access to drinking water:

Our Objectives:
to reduce the number of diseases caused by impure water, and to reduce the risk of epidemics among the displace population,
to increase access to drinking water for the whole population, both refugees and local residents,
to improve the quality of the water,
to improve local practices in the use of water, so as to reduce water loss and contamination.

To achieve this, SOLIDARITES is implementing the following projects:
construction of 26 reservoirs to store rainwater in the towns of Kanyabayonga and Kanya,
rehabilitation of the Kirumba water supply network, construction of 14 regulation chambers,
construction of a small water supply network in Kanyabayonga,
construction of temporary chlorination facilities by the water reservoirs,
tapping of 11 springs and improvement of access to 21 springs in Kanyabayonga and Kayna,
improvement of hygiene around the water springs,
hygiene awareness campaigns.

Our objectives:
to provide a sufficient quantity of quality nutritional care to reduce the mortality rate and high incidence of severe malnutrition among the displaced population in the Kanyabayonga area.
In parallel, SOLIDARITES will develop individual skills and intiatives so that the local population, in particular the refugees, will become less dependent on external food aid.

To achieve this, SOLIDARITES is implementing the following projects:
creation of a Nutritional Therapy Centre in partnership with the Kayna hospital, and provide nutritional therapy treatment to 90 severely malnourished individuals per month,
launching of 5 Nutritional Supplementation Centres within a 40 km radius around Kayna, and provision of nutritional supplementation treatment to 1500 people per month.
creation of a limited credit fund to support revenu-generating activities among the displaced population.