A major step for Burkina Faso: Consolidated performance data on rural water networks across seven regions

In early 2026, the first-ever consolidated performance report covering leased rural water supply systems (centres affermés) across seven regions of the country was developed : Bankui (formerly Boucle du Mouhoun), Tannounyan (formerly Cascades), Kadiogo (formerly Centre), Nakambé (formerly Centre-Est), Nando (formerly Centre-Ouest), Nazinon (formerly Centre-Sud), and Oubri (formerly Plateau Central). Covering the 2024 operational year, this report represents a milestone. Never before had Burkina Faso produced a document consolidating technical, financial, and governance performance data from its rural piped water networks at an inter-regional scale.

The report is the result of a partnership approach initiated in May 2022, when an inter-stakeholder workshop co-organised by ONEA, IRC, and Eau Vive — with financial support from the European Union — brought together all key players in the rural water service delivery chain: sector directorates, delegating local authorities, private operators, and water users. That workshop produced a joint roadmap for strengthening the governance of leased water systems. IRC's subsequent contribution focused on piloting a digital monitoring platform to improve the regularity and reliability of contractual reporting by operators, and to support structured accountability among all stakeholders. The Vitol Foundation provided the financial backing that made this sustained technical engagement possible — a contribution that should not go unnoticed by those who understand how rare and valuable systems strengthening funding is in the water sector.

Across the seven regions, 195 leased water supply systems were operational in 2024, serving approximately 526,550 people. Of these, 145 systems (74%) were functional at the time of the review. Annual production reached just over one million cubic metres (1,048,601 m³), with a network yield averaging 88%, still below the contractual target of 95%.

These headline figures mask significant regional variation. The Centre and Centre-Sud regions stood out with functionality rates of 100% and 95% respectively, reflecting better-structured operators and more consistent maintenance routines. At the other end of the spectrum, Boucle du Mouhoun and Centre-Est both recorded functionality rates of just 57%, hampered by ageing solar equipment, failing batteries, and outdated diesel generators. The Cascades region, at 60%, faced similar energy-related challenges.

On the financial side, the picture is one of precarious equilibrium. The 145 functional systems together generated revenues of 372.3 million FCFA against expenditures of 372.7 million FCFA — a near-zero net result. Three regions (Boucle du Mouhoun, Cascades, and Centre-Est) reported modest surpluses, while Centre-Ouest recorded a deficit of 15 million FCFA, largely due to high energy costs and weak cost recovery from institutional users. The overall payment collection rate stood at 90%, meeting the minimum contractual threshold but falling short of the 95% target for private consumers. Outstanding municipal fees (redevances communales) amounted to 32.2 million FCFA — roughly 9% of total billed revenue — a figure that directly undermines communes' capacity to fund the replacement of ageing infrastructure.

Perhaps more important than the raw data is what the report reveals about how the sector is beginning to organise itself around evidence.

The production of this consolidated report was itself an exercise in institutionalising accountability. Regional performance reviews were conducted between June and September 2025 in each of the seven pilot regions, bringing operators, communes, regional water directorates, and civil society around the same table to examine 2024 results against a common set of indicators drawn from the national reform framework. For many participants, this was the first time they had access to comparable data across systems and across communes /regions — and the first time local operators had to account publicly for their results.

The digital monitoring platform piloted across the seven regions played a central role in making this possible. By enabling operators to submit operational and financial data in near-real time, and by giving them the tools to automatically consolidate that data into exportable reports, the platform shifted the culture of reporting from an obligation on paper to a practical governance instrument. The lessons from this pilot are now feeding into the design of a national-scale monitoring platform — a development whose implications for the sector could prove substantial.

That said, the report is candid about the limits of governance as it currently stands. Most lease contracts remain outdated, poorly archived, or inconsistent with the national template. Communes, despite their formal role as delegating authorities, often lack the logistical, human, and financial resources to supervise operators effectively. The frequency of water quality testing — once a year in most regions, against a norm of twice yearly — remains a concern. Renewal accounts, which communes are supposed to feed with operator fees to finance infrastructure replacement, are in many cases either inactive or inadequately funded.

One of the report's most valuable contributions is its integrated analysis of technical and financial performance. The data reveals a clear and mutually reinforcing relationship between the two. Where systems are reliable and service is continuous, payment rates are higher and operators can cover their costs. Where breakdowns are frequent, users lose confidence, payment discipline erodes, operators fall behind on their fee transfers to communes, and the entire chain of financial responsibility weakens.

The Centre-Ouest region illustrates this dynamic vividly. Despite a relatively decent functionality rate of 86%, its financial deficit of 15 million FCFA was the worst of all seven regions. High energy costs, a sluggish maintenance response, and a collection rate stuck at 83% — dragged down by institutional users (schools, health centres, and public offices) whose bills depend on government budget allocations — combined to produce an unsustainable operating position. The report makes plain that no amount of financial engineering will compensate for unreliable service: if the water does not flow, the money does not flow either.

Conversely, the Boucle du Mouhoun and Centre-Est regions — despite their low functionality rates — managed to record financial surpluses. The report explains this apparent paradox soberly: in regions where many systems are non-functional, the remaining operators serve a reduced perimeter, which may look profitable on paper but actually masks a deterioration of the asset base. Financial viability built on a shrinking service footprint is not sustainability — it is managed decline.

The report sets out a five-axis action plan for 2025–2027. Its ambitions are specific and measurable: raise average functionality from 74% to 90%, push cost recovery above 95%, eliminate delayed fee transfers, ensure all systems benefit from twice-yearly water quality testing, update all lease contracts to conform with the national template, and expand the monitoring and accountability framework to all 17 of Burkina Faso's regions by 2027.

These targets are realistic but demanding. They require simultaneous progress on several fronts: preventive maintenance must replace the current reliance on reactive repairs; the digital platform must be scaled and institutionalised nationally; communes must be capacitated and held accountable for their responsibilities as delegating authorities; and the national tariff framework needs revision to reflect the real costs of maintenance, energy, and service delivery.

The action plan also calls for the institutionalisation of annual national performance reviews — a public accountability exercise bringing together all stakeholders — and the annual publication of a national consolidated performance report for the rural public water service. If sustained, this rhythm of evidence-based review and public reporting could fundamentally reshape the way the sector governs itself.

This report matters beyond Burkina Faso's borders. Rural water supply across francophone West Africa relies heavily on lease-based management models (affermage), yet consolidated, multi-regional performance data on these systems remains remarkably scarce. Most monitoring efforts are confined to individual projects, single regions, or isolated donor-funded evaluations. The systematic, government-owned, multi-stakeholder approach demonstrated here — consolidating data from nearly 200 systems across seven regions using a common indicator framework and a digital platform — offers a replicable model for the subregion.

It also demonstrates something that the WASH sector often struggles to prove: that long-term, trust-based partnerships between government institutions, technical partners, and funders can produce incremental but real shifts in how public services are governed. The partnership that made this report possible was not built in a single project cycle. It grew out of years of dialogue, shared learning, and institutional accompaniment — the kind of patient work that rarely makes headlines but quietly reshapes the conditions for better service delivery.

IRC is proud to have contributed to this achievement and is committed to continuing its support to Burkina Faso's public authorities and all sector stakeholders in their effort to deepen and sustain the professionalisation of rural water governance. The consolidation of performance data is not an end in itself. It is a means to something far more consequential: a public water service that is accountable, financially sustainable, and ultimately worthy of the trust of the communities it serves.

The work ahead is substantial. Extending the monitoring framework to all 13 regions, strengthening commune-level governance, addressing the structural bottleneck of institutional arrears, and modernising ageing infrastructure will require sustained commitment from all parties — government, operators, development partners, and civil society alike. But the foundations laid in 2024 and documented in this report offer solid ground on which to build.

For those of us who have spent years advocating for evidence-driven water governance in the Sahel, this first consolidated performance report from Burkina Faso is not just a document. It is a proof of concept and an invitation to go further.

*The 2024 consolidated performance report on leased rural water supply systems in Burkina Faso is not yet publicly available online.