It is raining in Burkina Faso – flooding in some areas – but aid workers and rural families are preparing for the dry season, when water shortages tend to kill off home gardens.

Helen Keller International (HKI) is set to distribute household drip irrigation kits to some 300 families in eastern Burkina Faso who are planting gardens as part of an HKI program to boost consumption of essential nutrients.

While drip irrigation is used increasingly in commercial farms it is not widely used in individual gardens. “But given the water shortages, to continue encouraging families to grow and eat nutritious foods we are introducing this technique for home gardens,” HKI’s Olivier Vebamba told IRIN.

“The production period is limited in some villages because water is inadequate to meet the populations’ needs,” HKI country director Ann Tarini-Hien told IRIN.

“Lack of water is a significant problem in Burkina,” she said. “Water points are few and distant, the water table is low – and lower in the dry season – and people’s needs increasingly compete with animals’ needs.”

When asked about health and nutrition in Burkina most aid workers and residents immediately point to the lack of water.

Read more of the story here at the IRIN news service:
BURKINA FASO: Boost for garden drip irrigation

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