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Background

ARCADE is a Franco-Malian NGO that has promoted inter-municipal cooperation between four Malian and seven French municipalities since 1983, working across 10 different sectors. As part of their agenda, they extended a road network in the municipality of Benkadi in order to increase access to the expanding communal Koungoba market. The expansion of the market was seized as an opportunity to address the important challenge of flooding that halts market operations during rainy seasons.

Approach

This initiative responds to the local need to continue market operations during heavy rains, and was designed through participatory processes. The drainage system was conceived in collaboration with community representatives and with the approval of local populations, who were invited to multiple public information events. A coordination committee with representatives from different community groups was put in place to supervise the construction of the drainage system. The costs of maintaining this infrastructure will be covered by a standard placement fee that is collected by each vendor to set up their market stand.

Environmental Impact

This initiative seeks to alleviate flooding in flood prone areas, which has multiple negative impacts on local ecology. Besides the infrastructural intervention, the market was re-organised to reduce the amount of flood prone spaces. This re-organisation included the development of a composting area, in order to reduce the accumulation of organic wastes at the market.

Success Factors

A key factor in this initiative’s success is the cohesion between ARCADE and its partners. Through highly participatory processes the initiative ensured that local actors were continuously involved in this project throughout its different phases – deciding on the spatial planning of the infrastructure, addressing community questions and concerns about this intervention, allowing for construction visits for transparency and understanding, and presenting the concluded infrastructure development. Given this collective involvement in the initiative, it was able to be crowdfunded and is now being maintained by the local community itself.

Evidence

The drainage infrastructure has reduced the vulnerability of the market to flooding, allowing it to operate more regularly throughout the rainy season. This initiative has also raised awareness amongst younger populations who were involved in the construction process of this infrastructure. By observing how this meaningful infrastructure was implemented, they have improved their understanding of flood-related risks and have also gained interest in new construction-related job opportunities.

Evolution

The final phase of this initiative was to launch a pilot project that extends the local water evacuation system to domestic grey waters. Through this system, domestic showers and kitchens would water a tree plantation besides an unused well. 188 people already benefited from this pilot project. This wastewater evacuation system was due to be extended to additional homes once the necessary means were crowdsourced.

Challenges

The main obstacle to the extension of this initiative is funding. ARCADE projects are supported by several public French and Malian grants, but this is insufficient to implement entire initiatives. As most of their projects are at least partly crowdfunded, it often takes time to upscale initiatives.

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