Stakeholder workshop in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

On Sunday 10 September 2023, a stakeholder workshop took place at Williamsville (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire), gathered local community leaders and researchers from EPFL, SwissTPH and University of Basel. The workshop’s main goal was to address, jointly with the community, important public health challenges related to the distribution of drinking water, and identify possible actions to respond to such challenges.

The discussions were based on the results of over 300 household surveys conducted in February 2022, in the context of the PhD thesis elaborated by Vitor Pessoa Colombo (EPFL), under the supervision of Jérôme Chenal (EPFL) and Jürg Utzinger (SwissTPH). Vitor coordinated the stakeholder workshop, with the help of partners from the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire, and the facilitation of Dekara Soumahoro (focal point in Williamsville).

The research results raised concerns regarding the continuity and safety of water distribution. Indeed, frequent service disruption compromised essential hygiene practices (e.g. hand-washing), while improvised, hazardous extensions of water pipes (going through open drains and exposed to environmental contaminants) compromised the biological safety of drinking water.

The public water utility has recently enhanced service continuity and accessibility through subsidized network connections; however, the improvised network extensions remain an issue. Based on the workshop discussions, a possible solution could be implementing an aerial structure of water pipes – thus protecting them from environmental contaminants present on the ground. Such solution has already been implemented in informal settlements like Kibera (Nairobi, Kenya), and could potentially be transposed to other places facing similar challenges.