Mbokop, Cameroon

Nestled in the mountains of the Cameroon’s Northwest region, the rural village of Mbokop is home to roughly 2,200 people from three primary tribes speaking three main languages, and following two major religions. The population of Mbokop is spread across five settlements. This diverse community primarily supports itself through subsistence farming and herding livestock, but lacks basic services such as safe drinking water, proper sanitation, and electricity.

The Need

Currently, the community’s drinking water supply comes from two main sources, springs and surface water streams. There is an existing spring box system and piping to standpipes in only one of the five settlements within Mbokop. However, the water does not flow year-round, there were concerns about water quality, and the water distribution points were only convenient for utilization by one of the five settlements within the community.

The Solution

EWB-DC began their partnership with the community of Mbokop in May 2012, and spent the next several months forming a team and conducting two assessment trips to the community in March 2013 and November 2013. In January 2015, EWB-DC conducted the first implementation trip to Mbokop.

During the assessment trips, the EWB-DC team partnered with local NGOs to assess the current water sources, conduct focus groups with the community, and conduct a quantitative household survey to collect information on community demographics, water, sanitation, and hygiene practices. In 2014, the project transitioned from the assessment phase into the design and implementation phase through which Mangi was selected by the Mbokop community as the first settlement to receive an improved drinking water system. Beginning in early 2015, the EWB-DC team broke ground on the installation of a spring-fed, gravity water system.

In addition to the installation of key infrastructure components for the water system, EWB-DC spent time on each implementation trip with community leaders in Mbokop working towards the water, sanitation, and health goals prioritized by the Mbokop Health Committee. HEDECs and EWB-DC also continued training the Mbokop Water Committee to build their capacity to manage the water infrastructure in the settlement and ensure its long-term sustainability.

Progress

In July of 2022 the Cameroon team completed construction of the gravity fed water system with the construction of two tap stands in the town center. The construction was completed with the help of our in-country construction contractor and HEDECs. The final system consists of a spring box to collect water, two break pressure tanks, an 8000 liter storage tank, about 2000 meters of PVC pipe, and two tap stands in the town center. We worked with our in-country partners and the community to establish the operation and maintenance of the system and feel the community now has the technical expertise and resources to maintain the drinking water system independently. Following this successful partnership, we look forward to focusing our efforts on other community partners working together to better their daily lives.