Koen@Bamako #12 Blessings of the Digital Workplace

World Waternet Team in Bamako

The official COVID-19 cases in Mali remain low compared to European countries (an average of 15 positive cases per day) so we are allowed to come to office. Our work at (World) Waternet in Amsterdam continues to be primarily online and this has shifted my work focus a bit throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018 and 2019, Amsterdam and Bamako were still miles apart. I could fully focus on my presence at our partners’ offices in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, a virtual communication with my colleagues in Amsterdam was added to that. MS Teams, Zoom and Face-Time have brought all the Amsterdam Headquarters meetings one mouse-click away. 

Since November 2020, the local World Waternet team grew to three persons, as Ruth Wijland and Eleanor Treadwell joined me in Bamako. Ruth is participating in the Young Expert Program and is mainly working for our WaterWorX partnership with SOMAGEP. Eleanor is the project leader of the Blue Deal ‘Dji Don’ partnership with ANGESEM. It is nice and much needed to have extended our team. Especially now that our colleagues of Waternet cannot travel as easily to West Africa to assist in the projects.

August is the peak of the rainy season; the floods hide the potholes and drains so that occasionally, cars get stuck

SOMAGEP & SOMAPEP

SOMAGEP and World Waternet have been working on reducing the Non-Revenue Water during the past 12 months. A District Metered Area was created in the Faso Kano neighborhood in Bamako and throughout a year, data was gathered and analyzed. In close collaboration with the technical team, leaks in the potable water network were traced and repaired. At the same time, we created a team of 20 interns to detect the unbilled meters. These are increasing in Bamako, as the World Bank (and other international donors) are realizing 100.000 new house connections in three years. Administrative errors resulted in about 30.000 unbilled meters in Bamako. With our project, we have already detected 1500 of them in one month. These households will start paying their bills by coming month, generating extra revenue for SOMAGEP.

EU-WOP Programme

Our good results have not remained unnoticed. World Waternet, SOMAGEP and SOMAPEP have received additional funding (of 750.000 Euros) from the European Union to expand its Non-Revenue Water activities to three other cities in Mali (Sikasso, Koutiala and Kati), as part of the EU-WOP Programme (You are leaving this website). Part of the funding is reserved to assist SOMAPEP in finding co-funding for large scale infrastructural investments. The EU-WOP Programme, funded by the European Union and managed by UN-Habitat led GWOPA, leverages the demonstrated capacity of utilities to help one another reach the SDGs.
(You are leaving this website)

Coup d’Etat 2

After a first Coup d’Etat on 18 August 2020, a second one happened in May 2021. Conflicts within the interim government, forced the initiator of the first coup to step up again and make the president and prime-minister resign. Luckily, the second coup went even smoother than the first: streets remained calm and schools closed only for one day. Politically though, the two Coups d’Etats have quite some consequences. Within 6 months, the three managing directors of our partners SOMAGEP, SOMAPEP and ANGESEM were replaced. In turn, the new managing directors shook up the internal organization by replacing other directors and heads of departments. As a result, we had to liaise again with the new key-figures within the organization. It showed us again how important it is to have a broad network on all levels within the organization, as management positions can suddenly change. 

Masterclass Personal Development and Female Leadership

With our Blue Deal ‘Dji Don’ project, we have organized a masterclass on ‘personal development and female leadership’ for 22 (female) employees of ANGESEM. During this five-day event, we worked together on recognizing and analyzing different management styles, the cultural context on which they depend and the role of the individual to influence this. The focus was also on recognizing structures and patterns and being able to reflect on the role one plays in this. 

Group discussion on different types of leadership styles during the masterclass personal development and female leadership