Eraste Manishaka
About 125 kilometres northeast of Burundi’s economic capital Bujumbura lies Ngozi province – home to thousands including the Batwa of Gika Community.
The Batwa is one of Africa’s most marginalised communities and they are conservation refugees in many countries- including in Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. For decades, the Batwa in Gika faced several challenges ranging – including lack of clean water.
During the rainy season, residents collected rainwater that was often stagnant and unsanitary while during the dry season they travelled several kilometres to draw water from the marshes. This situation not only affected the Batwa community of Gika, but the neighbouring villages of Mivo, Kinyana and Gatonde as well.
According to Sheikh Hussain Mohammed – one of the prominent leaders in the area, this situation not only caused water-borne diseases, but also plunged the communities into precarious living conditions.
Ngozi province is located in the groundwater-rich Kagera basin. In this basin water collection is largely the responsibility of women and children.
According to the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) technical report, the average time spent collecting water varies between 20 and 30 minutes.
Community Centred Intervention
Groundwater in Ngozi province falls under the Kagera aquifer shared by Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi. According to the Nile Basin Initiative water abstraction in this aquifer is estimated at 3.25 million m3/year.
With support from development partners, communities in Ngozi province villages – including the Batwa now have access to clean water which is being pumped from the ground. This project initiated by the Burundi Muslim community in Ngozi started in 2023.
“We initiated the project to drill deep underground and install reservoirs and easily accessible distribution points after noticing that the Batwa community of Gika and the villages of Mivo, Kinyana and Gatonde were using unsafe water,” explains Sheikh Mohammed.
Ground water projects are a game changer in countries with inadequate surface water sources.
Dr Abel Nsabimana, a hydrologist and lecturer at the University of Burundi says that Burundi has 5,000 sources of drinking water with a flow rate of more than two litres per second. “However, these sources of water are not sufficient to supply the population living in the towns and in the interior of the country, including schools. This is why it is so important to have recourse to groundwater drilling,” he elaborates.
According to Seleus Ntunzwenimana, a manager at government’s Water and Sanitation Department notes that groundwater is very important for supplying drinking water to schools and health centres where government’s water agency – Régie de Production et de Distribution d’Eau et d’Electricité (REGIDESO) does not cover.
However, there are still low levels of underutilisation of ground water not only in Burundi – but across the entire Kagera aquifer area. According to NBI, Kagera aquifer has an estimated storage capacity of around 50 billion m3 but current groundwater abstraction for domestic water supply is estimated at 3.25 million m3/year.
Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is a cooperative arrangement initiated and led by the Nile riparian countries to promote joint development, protection and management of the common Nile Basin water resources.
A Profound Transformation
Groundwater today accounts for around 70 percent of the water supply in the Kagera basin, the NBI’s technical report points out.
Groundwater projects like the one in Ngozi are playing a critical role in improving health and living conditions among people – including the Batwa.
Carine Migihsha, the head of the local health centre in Gika says that they used to see tens of patients every week suffering from diarrhoea or water-borne infections, but these cases have reduced.
He notes that hygiene practices have also improved significantly, with residents now washing their clothes and cleaning utensils with clean water adding that the construction of toilets has become widespread, reducing the risk of water contamination.
In addition to health outcomes improvement, access to groundwater has created economic opportunities for the community.
Sinzumusi Rajab, a farmer in the Mubuga area now irrigates his maize gardens with ease. “Before, I used to walk miles to fetch water from Nkaka. Now water is close to my fields, making irrigation easier and increasing my production,” he elaborates.
Another farmer, Simon Bukuru took advantage of the available water and bought an irrigation pump. Before, he used to spend 200,000 Burundian Francs (FBU) on buying water.
Kadandaza Nduwimana, a pig farmer and Batwa hill leader used to pay 20,000 FBU a day to buy and carry water for his animals, but now he saves this money for other purposes.
Community Interventions Sustainability
Sheikh Hussain Mohammed observes that development partners have helped to finance the groundwater projects and all that is expected of the community is responsible management to ensure that these infrastructures serve for generations.
As a sustainability intervention, area leaders have set up local committees to oversee the maintenance of the facilities and to raise awareness among residents of the need to use the established water sources responsibly.
Is Ground Water Key to Climate Change Resilience?
In Burundi, access to drinking water during the dry season is difficult. Taps often run dry in both urban and rural areas, and the situation normalises again during the rainy season. However, as Dr. Nsabimana observes that over the past years, the dry seasons are becoming longer.
He observes that the development of underground water supplies provides continuous access to drinking water, and helps people forget about water stress associated with the current unprecedented climate change in Burundi.
On his part, Sheikh Mohammed observes that “Solar-powered submersible pumps, with reservoirs and taps connected wherever possible, offer much better yields, supply two or three times as many people, and are easier to maintain.”
The project to provide access to drinking water in the village of Gika shows that water can transform a community. By improving public health, easing economic burdens and offering new opportunities, this project has become a pillar of progress for the Batwa of Gika.
This initiative underlines the importance of sustainable management of natural resources and demonstrates that simple solutions can have a profound impact. Through this example, Gika is becoming an inspiring model for other regions facing similar challenges, and a reminder that access to drinking water is a fundamental right and a condition for an equitable future.
This story was produced with support from NBI Secretariat (Nile-Sec), which, in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented a program across the Nile Basin focused on shared groundwater aquifers. The project’s goal was to improve water resource management at both the national and basin levels.
The first phase concentrated on building knowledge and capacity for the sustainable use and management of significant transboundary aquifers within the Nile Basin. Three aquifer areas were selected for intervention: the Kagera aquifer shared by Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi; the Mt Elgon aquifer shared by Uganda and Kenya; and the Gedaref-Adigrat aquifer shared by Sudan and Ethiopia. These aquifers are located in various climates, including arid, semi-arid, and tropical regions.
Initially, the phase involved gathering existing data and creating a Shared Aquifer Diagnostic Report (SADA) for the three selected aquifers. The subsequent phase engaged in groundwater modeling to enhance understanding of the aquifers and analyze scenarios based on changes in climate and groundwater use.
