iDrate Project - Professionalization of Construction for Water in West Africa

The project will enable high quality construction and maintenance of water sources in West Africa in order to increase the reliability and service life of water supply facilities. This will be achieved through practical training and certification of technicians and supervisors.

This five-year project will start with the development of pilot training courses which will be fine tuned in the first year, and can be subsequently replicated throughout the region. The courses will start in Cameroon. This country has been selected as there was training school in here in the past, which left a legacy of training capacity in the country. There is also ready and well networked external support, available for Cameroon. The training modules will cover planning, design of operation and maintenance friendly systems, construction of water catchment system and mains and distribution systems, building of chambers and storage tanks, supervision of project implementation, operation and maintenance. The project will also involve the development of an instruction manual for trainers.

The project will start in Cameroon, with the training being taken to other countries in line with demand.

The total budget for the project is estimated to be about CHF 750,000.

Skat Foundation will be responsible for the overall management of the project in collaboration with IEA Consulting.

Trained and skilled technicians and supervisors for rural water supply implementation and maintenance in the West African region.