Country background
- The country’s Human Development Index (HDI) rank is the last worldwide.
Policies and strategies
- Niger's Water and Sanitation Policy was updated in 2000 and is supported by urban and rural implementation strategies, e.g. the National Strategy for Urban Environment (Stratégie Nationale d’Environnement Urbain au Niger). Other fundamental texts include the Public Hygiene Code, the Law on Mining, and associated policies relating to environmental management, decentralization, and water resource management.
- The National Water Policy (Code de l’Eau) is implemented using a project-based approach rather than strategic alignment.
- A National Programme for Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation (Programme National d’Approvisionnement en Eau Potable et d’Assainissement - PNAEPA) was elaborated in 2008. The goal of the programme is to increase access to drinking water to 65% by 2009 and 80% by 2015.
Institutions
- The water and sanitation sector faces institutional fragmentation, coupled with overlapping responsibilities and competencies.
- The Ministry of Water (Ministère de l’Hydraulique - MH) is responsible for all water supply activities, supply of sanitation services in rural areas, coordination with other ministries and overall sector coordination. Out of the nine departments created in 2008, the Department of Rural Water (Direction de l’Hydraulique Rurale - DHR) and the Department of Urban and Peri-Urban Water and Sanitation (Direction de l’Hydraulique Urbaine, Semi Urbaine et de l’Assainissement - DHUSU/A) have the key responsibilities.
- The Ministry of Public Health (Ministère de la Santé Publique) has an active role in sanitation, personal hygiene and public health education through its Department of General Public Health (Direction Générale de la Santé Publique - DGSP) and Department of Public Hygiene and Education (Direction de l’Hygiène Publique et de l’Education pour la Santé - DHPES).
- The Ministry of Education (Ministère de l'Education Nationale) deals with sanitation and hygiene education in schools. The Ministry of Urban Development, Housing and Land Registry (Ministère de l'Urbanisme, de l'Habitat et du Cadastre) is responsible for the implementation and monitoring of sanitation policies and infrastructure in urban areas. The Ministry of Environment (Ministère de l’Environnement) has its role in solid and liquid wastes, and effluent control of wastewater treatment systems.
- The national water authorities SPEN (Société du Patrimoine des Eaux du Niger) and SEEN (Société d'Exploitation des Eaux du Niger) are responsible for water supply in urban centres. Outside the SPEN-SEEN perimeter, the majority of water services are delivered by user organizations or village water committees.
- Coordination: A National Commission for Water and Sanitation (Commission Nationale de l'Eau et de l'Assainissement - CNEA) was created by the State Permanent Secretary in 2006 to guarantee the coordination of the sector and the intervening parties. In practice, this joint advisory structure is not fully operational. Because coordination initiatives, such as “Livre Bleu”, the WASH Cluster, Global Water Partnership and the WASH Coalition, had difficulties to operate and even comprised the same members, it was decided in 2010 to subsume them and create an overall Alliance of WASH Resources Centres (Alliance des Centres des Ressources pour le WASH - ACR/WASH) hosted by CREPA (Centre Régional pour l'Eau Potable et l'Assainissement à faible coût).
