Managing water: ditch digging (Burkina Faso)

Many women are taking part in a programme coordinated by French charity Acción contra el Hambre, to make ditches for collecting water for irrigation. Burkina is a poor country, with 55% of its inhabitants below the international poverty line, and with very deficient basic infrastructures for water: only 20% have improved sanitation, but among the majority rural population this figure is down to 7% .

Most of the population are farmers (70%) and carry out subsistence farming based on sorghum, millet, corn or peanuts, harvests being increasingly poorer due to irregular rains and the climate change typical of this Saharan country. In some parts, these crops are combined with cotton which is an important source of income for the country.