Kokomani sits alongside the Niger River, which never runs dry, unlike many other bodies of water in this desert region. But residents here know all too well what lurks under the surface of the river, and how devastating its effects can be.

By Andrea Peer and Peter Warski, World Vision U.S.

Villagers in Kokomani, Niger, have used the river as their sole source of water for generations — not just for drinking and cooking, but for doing laundry, growing rice, bathing, and swimming.

Frighteningly enough, it’s also where animals go to drink and defecate. Rotting carcasses occasionally end up in the water, and during the rainy season in this West African country, floods carry the filth from surrounding villages and drain it straight into the river.

“Water is the most critical problem [in Kokomani],” confirms a World Vision health agent. “The most frequent diseases are tied to water. Every time there is a cholera epidemic in Niger, it hits here.”

Children hit hardest

Last year, from the 328 households in Kokomani, at least 250 children went to the local clinic with cases of diarrhea — and that number doesn't represent all cases. Many other children are afflicted with diarrhea, but their illnesses are not reported. It is almost considered normal.

Two-year-old Abdoumoumouni Kadre puts a human face on this crisis. “He's sick right now,” says his grandmother, Hadiza Hadi, who is taking care of him. “He has malaria and diarrhea. When he eats, he also vomits. It's due to mosquitoes and also from the water.”

She knows the source of the boy's ailments. So do other adults in the village, many of whom have built up tolerance to the polluted water they consume. But children's developing bodies don't yet have such a coping mechanism, and the results can be tragic.

“A lot of children die from diarrhea here; just last year, it [was] up to five children,” says one midwife from Kokomani.

“Around 10 percent of the population is affected by intestinal parasites,” adds Hadissa Sadou, the head nurse at the local clinic. “It is especially the children who are impacted.”

Crisis compounded by poverty

Even some of the adults in this small community won't drink the river water, like Mounkela Boureima, Kokomani's medicine man. “I send people to another village, to a well with a pump [about three miles away], to get water for me,” he says. “I get clean water because I am afraid of dying, and I don't want to drink water from the river.”

Sadly, the vast majority of villagers here don't have this luxury. Mounkela pays $1 for each time he sends a messenger to the well. In Niger, where 85 percent of the population lives on less than $2 per day, such an expense is out of the question. And there's only one well for about 5,700 people, says Hadissa. So most residents are resigned to the idea of consuming the disgusting water from the Niger River.

Finding a solution

World Vision and its partners are working alongside communities around the world like Kokomani to help provide them with access to clean, safe water. Our staff members are conducting surveys to begin the process of drilling new wells, recognizing the multiple benefits of having access to this basic resource.

"The well-being [of villagers] would increase, and we would have the chance to work more,” says Souley Issaka, a World Vision sponsorship coordinator in Kokomani. “The body would be healthy…even the expenses you use to take care of the sick children can be used elsewhere.”
Alzouma Saidou, chief of Kokomani, echoes the need for potable water in his community: “With clean water, the frequency of disease would reduce. We would still use the river for washing clothes…but for our drinking water and cooking, we would use the well.”

It's a dream that residents of this West African village all share, and for vulnerable children like Abdoumoumouni, whose very survival is at risk, it’s one that can't become reality too soon.