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Amman Imman Program Details

This “Program Details” section has been developed to explain the purpose, goals, and activities of Amman Imman. It is divided into the following categories:

A. Overview
B. Addressing the Water Problem
C. Long-Term Goals
D. People of the Azawak
   The Tuaregs
   The Woodabe Fulani
E. Agro-Pastoral Production
F. Water Insufficiency
G. Health and Nutrition
H. Amman Imman Pilot Phase Activities
I. Immediate Benefits of Program Activities
J. Long-Term Benefits of Program Activities

Program Details · A. Overview

Chronic vulnerability to food insecurity in the Sahelian region of Africa in general, and in particular, the Republic of Niger, continues to threaten the livelihood of rural households. As a result of the 2005 food crisis, Niger dropped from the second poorest to the poorest country in the world according to the UNDP's Human Development Index (HDI). With 63% of all Nigeriens living below the poverty line and 41% — a majority of which are children — suffering from chronic malnutrition, USAID classifies Niger as a Low Income Food Deficit Country (LIFDC) and qualifies as a USAID Title II strategic management country.

The Azawak plains in the northern Tahoua region of central Niger was one of the hardest hit areas in 2005. In this vast region south of the Sahara, covering 200 km2 and home to over 500,000 people, the harsh environmental conditions afflicting the nation as a whole are exacerbated by complete inaccessibility to health and nutritional care coupled with permanent water insufficiency (caused by lack of infrastructure and human resources).

Despite the daily life-threatening situation that exists in the Azawak, both governmental and non-governmental humanitarian assistance remains for all intents and purposes nonexistent outside of urban centers. This is due to both political and logistical factors. Additionally, rural populations did not benefit from any rehabilitation efforts including free food distribution during the 2005 food crisis. As a result, the people of the Azawak are in disarray. Some have abandoned former lifestyles. Many have fled their homes seeking refuge in cities and neighboring countries.

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Program Details · B. Addressing the Water Problem

The main needs of the populations living in the Azawak include access to food, health care, and water. However, these needs cannot be addressed all at once. The populations of the Azawak have a saying: Amman Imman, Arr Issudarr (“Water is Life, Milk is Hope” in Tamachek, the language of the Tuareg people). They must first remedy their poor access to water if they one day hope to improve their overall living conditions. They have therefore distinguished one need over the rest: access to reliable, potable, and sustainable sources of water.

As a program of the American non-profit The Friendship Caravan, Amman Imman has a simple mission: to build permanent water sources for the rural population of the Azawak. This will significantly improve health, drastically reduce infant mortality, greatly cut the number of refugees, and motivate both governmental and non governmental agencies to bring in additional humanitarian assistance. A few wells at a time we aim to bring stability and hope to tens of thousands of people who live with the indignity of spending most of their time seeking water for their families.

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Program Details · C. Long-Term Goals

The long-term goals of Amman Imman are to drastically improve the overall health and to greatly reduce child mortality of the target population living in the Azawak region of Niger.

Amman Imman has outlined the following objectives in order to accomplish these goals:


The project will accomplish these objectives by:



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Program Details · D. People of the Azawak

The main ethnic groups of the region are the Tuaregs and the Fulani. Most Tuaregs are pastoralist nomads that live in camps of approximately 50 to 150 members. Due to economic pressure and dramatic livestock losses, some Tuaregs have abandoned their formally nomadic lifestyle and now live in small villages ranging from 100 to 500 individuals, and rely on seasonal small-scale agriculture for survival. The pastoral Fulani live in camps of no more than one or two families, with extended family units interspersed every one or two miles.

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The Tuaregs

Click here to see photographs of the Tuareg people.

An aura of mystery and romance surrounds the desert nomads known as the Tuareg. Long known as warriors, traders, and capable guides through the dangers of the Sahara Desert, the Tuareg find their independence severely threatened as repetitive droughts kill their herds and international borders inhibit their wanderings. Many have been forced to give up their nomadic lifestyle and move to the cities for work.

The Tuareg people represent a Saharan offshoot of the Berbers, who have resided in North Africa for several millennia. While today’s Tuareg are nominally Muslim, their ancestors fled to the Sahara Desert to avoid submitting to Arab conquerors and converting to Islam. As a result of Arab conquests in the 7th century A.D., and then Bedouin immigrations into North Africa during the 11th century A.D., many Berber groups sought refuge in the oases of the Sahara. There they adopted a nomadic and predatory mode of life, modeled on that of their invaders. Even though they have retained the language and many of the customs of their Berber ancestors, the Tuareg have developed a unique culture of their own, a genuine synthesis of many traditions, including not only Berber and Arab, but also elements from indigenous peoples who reside in the Sahel. Tuareg political organizations extend across national boundaries, and these nomadic pastoralists inhabit an area in North Africa ranging from central Algeria and Libya in the north to northern Nigeria in the south, and from western Libya in the east to as far west as Timbuktu, Mali. Today it is estimated that there are 1.3 million Tuareg, most of them living in Mali and Niger.

Tuareg society is traditionally feudal, with five castes: nobles, vassals, holy men, artisans, and laborers (former slaves). The Tuareg are monogamous and have a matrilineal system of inheritance. In this they differ sharply from their Berber kinsmen, the Arabs, and most other sub-Saharan peoples.

Most Tuaregs of the Azawak have retained a fully nomadic existence and herd cattle, camels, goats, and sheep. They reside in camps ranging from 50 to 150 people and live in tents of wooden poles covered with a red dyed goat hide tarp. During the rainy season, they move camp every three to four days in search for the greenest pastures for their livestock. During the dry season, they move often to find water, but prefer to stay in the vicinity of their “home territory,” land passed down from one generation to the next.

Sedentary Tuareg villages grow more and more common as livestock herds shrink due to environmental conditions. Without animals to have for their livelihood, the nomads settle into small villages of 100 to 300 people and attempt to live off of sustenance agriculture, mostly growing the grains millet and sorghum. These sedentary populations abandon their villages during the harshest months of the dry season when they too must travel from one distant source of water to another.

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The Woodabe Fulani

Click here to see photographs of the Fulani people.

Little is known about the Woodabe, a sub-ethnic group of the Fulani people, traditionally nomadic herders that range throughout West Africa from Mauritania in the North to Cameroon in the south and Sudan in the East. The Woodabe of the Azawak rely on herding cattle for their survival. They live in small camps of only one or two families and relocate to find better pastures every two or three days. Their “homesteads” consist of one traditional wooden bed (which they cover with a plastic sheet when threatened by rain or scorching sun rays) and a wooden table covered with 20 to 30 calabashes. Only a few of these calabashes are used for conserving grain or milk whereas the rest are displayed for decoration as a sign of the woman’s wealth.

The most important possession in Fulani society is cattle, about which these herders have many traditions and taboos. The number of cows a person owns is a sign of his wealth. The Woodabe is so knowledgeable about his cattle that he is said to cast spells with magic potions that will lure his cattle to follow him wherever he wants to go.

The Woodabe are also notorious for their veneration of “beauty.” They hold celebrations (called Guerwul) to celebrate the rainy season. Guerwul season is the time for Woodabe beauty competitions. During these rituals the most beautiful woman chooses her future husband as the men, garnished in traditional clothing and face paintings, dance in place, proudly showing off the whiteness of their eyes and teeth. Men also use these ceremonies to practice teegal, where they “steal” the woman of their choice — married or not — by luring them away with spells and magic potions until the next Guerwul, when yet another man’s potions and charms may attract her elsewhere.

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Program Details · E. Agro-Pastoral Production

The project target area suffers from persistent desertification and poor annual rainfall &*8212; rarely exceeding 200 to 400 mm a year. Year-to-year decreases in rainfall along with the locust attacks of the previous two years have caused a 60% grain deficit, a 50-80% loss of livestock due to diminished pasturelands, and an underground water deficit of over 142,812 tons. Hence, satisfying nutritional needs has become increasingly difficult due to unreliable and unaffordable1 access to grain supplies and other supplemental foodstuff as well as insufficient animal production, most particularly milk that in “normal” times constitutes the food base and principal source of revenue for households. (for instance, in November 2005, when the cost of millet should have dropped drastically after the food crisis, its cost was still unaffordable at $24 per 100 kg bag.)

Due to food insufficiency, 85% of the households in the district consume nothing except for a small quantity of milk at least seven days per month. Food insecurity is exacerbated during the nine month dry season when milk yields are particularly low because livestock herds themselves suffer from dehydration and starvation, thereby making them less productive.

The dramatic losses of livestock have forced many nomadic pastoralists to become sedentary farmers for the first time in their population’s history — an alarming fact given that herding tends to be a more reliable source of food security than farming.

This “settling down” process will also aggravate the already existing water shortage dilemma facing the area. Permanent and semi-permanent water sources — such as wells — are greatly limited in number and difficult to access. Potable drinking water is for all intents and purposes unavailable.

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Program Details · F. Water Insufficiency

During the three-month rainy season, households depend on pond water to meet both their primary needs (drinking, cooking, washing) and the needs of their animals. As soon as the ponds dry up, the men dig temporary water holes up to ten meters deep around the ponds to access underground rainwater reserves. Once these dry up after one or two months, both nomads and sedentary populations travel up to 25 km (50 km round-trip) by foot or donkey to find water for themselves and their animals. Because both land and water are precious commodities, the water searchers are forbidden from settling near the water sources, and they therefore repeat their search on a daily basis.

Overexploitation causes the few existing wells to dry out prematurely. People may therefore spend as many as two or three days waiting for a well to replenish itself. After one or two days of use, it once again dries up, and the whole process repeats itself. Not being able to rely on these wells, people must then travel an extra 50 km to the city of Tchintabaradène to purchase water for $7 per 200 liters.

During the nine-month dry season, the “fetchers” of water — usually women and children — bring home approximately 60 liters of water for the needs of their family and the small animals unable to travel directly to the water source. Under these conditions, most individuals survive on less than 6 liters of water/person/day — a quantity well under the World Health Organization prescribed minimum of 25 liters of water/person/day — and have difficulty finding time for other activities such as basic household chores, revenue-generating activities, and school.

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Program Details · G. Health and Nutrition

Health care coverage in the target area is as low as 21% and functional health care facilities, often a two-day donkey ride away, are as rare and far to reach as reliable sources of water — it is not uncommon that people who could easily be saved will die simply because they cannot receive basic medical care. Compounding poor health and malnutrition is the aforementioned lack of accessible clean water.

Malnutrition caused by poor diet and improper breastfeeding habits is frequently observed among children and infants. Children are covered in hives and lice because they cannot bathe for lack of water during the nine-month dry season. Dysentery and diarrhea are an every day occurrence, mostly due to the critical water unavailability and poor water quality. Even during the rainy season, pond water — described as “darker than hot chocolate” — is not potable given that animals defecate in and around the ponds, and humans use the ponds for bathing. Mortality rates due to water-borne illness are consequently as high as 25% among infants under five years of age living in the district.

The absence of health care coverage within reasonable vicinity deprive household members not only of health services, but also of health information and education. For instance, 99% of the population has never heard of HIV/AIDS and when they are asked what causes sickness, the number one answer given is "heat".

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Program Details · H. Amman Imman Six-Month Pilot Phase Activities

Amman Imman has designed a “six-month pilot phase” to begin efforts in the Azawak. The initial project proposes to build two permanent and sustainable water sources within the zone north east of the small city, Tchintabaradène. The Tchintabaradène district covers a surface area of 73,540 km2, with an estimated population of 100,000 inhabitants and a population growth rate of 2.6%.

During this initial phase, the program will build two fully functional and sustainable water sources: 1) one borehole-well combination and 2) one well that will be linked to an already existing borehole. The program has chosen the borehole-well infrastructure because it is the best-suited hydraulic structure to the harsh hydro-geological conditions of the area. (The underwater table in the target zone varies between 75 and 400 meters, with a mean depth of 120-140 meters). Given the depth of the water table, building a shallow well or a traditional borehole water pump is not feasible because these types of infrastructure cannot bring water close enough to the surface. Furthermore, highly mechanized systems run the risk of being abandoned if they break down because the territory it too remote to have repair materials easily accessible. The most adapted hydraulic structure is therefore the borehole-well. This system relies on artesian pressure to supply a shallow concrete well with a continuous and clean source of water from a borehole accessing aquifer reserves located from 200 to 400 meters underground.


Diagram of a borehole well.

These borehole-wells will be located strategically 20 miles or so apart from one another, and 40 to 60 miles away from the towns of Abalak and Tchintabaradène (we will determine their precise location after conducting an in depth study of the hydrogeologic conditions in the district). One borehole-well will serve approximately 25,000 people and their livestock. The number of people using one well at a time will decrease as more and more water sources are made available in the region.

In order to conduct this initial pilot phase, the program will hire staff members and a contractor specialized in building hydro-infrastructure. Full-time staff will include one program director, two field supervisors, one bookkeeper/chief of staff, and one driver-mechanic. Part-time staff will include one hydro-geologist and a webmaster. The program will conduct an “appel d'offre” in order to choose the best contractor at the most reasonable cost to build the infrastructure. The pilot program is estimated to take 6 months to complete, with infrastructure construction beginning during the second month of program operation.

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Program Details · I. Immediate Benefits of Six-Month Program Activities

Access to reliable, potable, and sustainable sources of water would lead to the following immediate benefits:

1) Year-round access to potable and plentiful quantities of water, thereby meeting the consumption and hygienic purposes of approximately 50,000 individuals and their livestock.

2) Improved health, nutrition, and hygiene of 50,000 individuals:

3) Improved livestock health and increased herd size:

4) Improved quality of life:

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Program Details · J. Long-Term Benefits of Program Activities

Access to reliable, potable, and sustainable sources of water would lead to the following long-term benefits:

1) Increased help from humanitarian aid organizations.

2) Additional benefits.

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