3. Water and Food Security: A Case Study of Community-Based Water Resources in Cameroon

In this post, I build upon the previous analysis of water scarcity and famine through a case study of community-based water development and management in Cameroon. I begin with a broad overview of the Energy-Water-Food Nexus relationship before zooming into a case study of Kumbo in North-West Cameroon. I then progressively zoom out, analyzing performance indicators of five community water supply networks across Cameroon, before finally evaluating a global-scale review of success factors in rural community water supply management.

There is an intricate link between water, food, and energy security (Smajgl et al., 2016). All three are deeply interconnected in that each resource intricately affects consumption of the others (Hadian and Madani, 2013; Bryan et al., 2015; Hafeez et al., 2020) as illustrated in the Energy-Water-Food Nexus in Figure 1. 

Figure 1: Energy-Water-Food Nexus (Smajgl et al., 2016).

Water is fundamental to the Energy-Water-Food Nexus and water insecurity is strongly associated with food insecurity, particularly amongst the most food insecure households (Nounkeu et al., 2021). Therefore, addressing water security is paramount to addressing food insecurity. To this end, I explore community-based water resource management as a solution addressing water security in the case study of the Kumbo Water Authority (KWA). 

In 1991, the residents of Kumbo violently reclaimed ownership of their water supply from national parastatal corporation SNEC as they believed SNEC had taken over a water system constructed and owned by the community, subsequently mismanaging it through fee increases, public tap closures, inadequacies in system maintenance, and filling its ranks with francophones (Page, 2003). Following the replacement of SNEC by the KWA, prices of domestic connections and public tap stands became more affordable alongside greater availability and access, as illustrated in Figure 2 (Page, 2003).

Figure 2: Comparison of water price, number of domestic connections and public taps under SNEC and KWA (Page, 2003).

Although the KWA received domestic and international recognition for its successful community-based provision of effective service, system maintenance, and financial management, there is uncertainty in its long-term sustainability (Page, 2003). The KWA depends significantly on voluntary labor, dilutions of chemicals concentrations at treatment stations, and is insufficiently capitalized enough to afford the necessary extensive overhauls to their 30-year-old pipe network that has reached its design lifespan (Page, 2003).

To assess the performance and viability of community-based water networks more broadly, I analyzed key indicators across five municipalities in the Northwest, West, and South regions of Cameroon: Kumbo, Ndu, Bandja, Efoulan, and Zoetele. The first two had networks older than 30 years old while the latter three had networks less than 10 years old. Generally, newer networks performed well in efficiency (primary yield) and water loss (LLI) while most networks struggled with unpaid contributions and opening time for new subscribers (Moussa and Fonteh, 2020). 

Therefore, key opportunities for improvement remain in invoice collection systems, customer monitoring, and unlocking income from local authorities who do not pay for water (Moussa and Fonteh, 2020). 

Finally, a global-scale systematic 30-year review of successful community managed rural water supplies has highlighted cooperative initiative, astute leadership, and institutional transparency as paramount internal factors alongside financial assistance and supply of materials as paramount external factors (Hutchings et al., 2015).