By: Leonard Shang-Quartey, Coordinator Africa Water Justice Network
To the northeast of Dakar, in Senegal’s dry and arid Thiès Region, lies the community of Merina Dakhar. At first glance, it is difficult to imagine how life is sustained here. There are no visible rivers, lakes, or streams, and the community is located far from the urban water distribution network that serves the capital. Yet, despite these harsh conditions, Merina Dakhar has built a resilient community water system that, today, stands as an example of local effort.
The community depends entirely on groundwater. Water is pumped from underground, treated, stored in an elevated reservoir, and distributed through a network of household connections. This system provides the lifeline for hundreds of families living in an environment where water scarcity is a daily reality.
For many years, the water system was managed by communities and the revenue generated from water management was reinvested locally, funding the construction of classrooms, the recruitment of a midwife for the health centre, and essential services. In 2018, the government allowed a private company to operate. However, relations between the community and the company became increasingly strained. Residents complained of unaffordable tariffs, excessive connection fees, and poor water quality. More importantly, they felt excluded from decisions affecting this essential service.
Eventually, the community took the bold decision to take back responsibility for managing the water system themselves.
The transition was far from easy. Community management required volunteers and committee members to learn new technical, financial, and administrative responsibilities. There were inevitable setbacks and challenges, but through commitment and collective action, the community gradually transformed the utility.
Today, Merina Dakhar has achieved significant improvements. Water quality has improved, more households have been connected to the network, and the reliability of water supply has increased. While challenges remain, residents consistently express greater satisfaction with the community-managed system than they experienced under private management.
The work, however, is far from complete.
The community water management committee identifies several critical needs to ensure the long-term sustainability of the system. Technical training is required for local operators, particularly in pump maintenance and repair, water treatment, and preventive maintenance. Strengthening financial management systems will also be essential to ensure transparency.
Infrastructure expansion presents an even greater challenge. As the community grows, additional investments are needed to extend the network, improve storage capacity, and upgrade equipment. Although residents have already begun mobilizing local resources and have started some work, the scale of investment required exceeds what the community can finance on its own.
Despite these constraints, Merina Dakhar has demonstrated that community ownership can place public interest above profit. Rather than treating water as a commodity available only to those who can afford it, the community has embraced the principle that everyone should have access to safe, affordable water. This commitment to universal access was a key reason why, in January 2026, Merina Dakhar was officially recognized as a Blue Community.
The Blue Communities movement recognizes that every community is on its own journey. Some have developed strong, sustainable public water systems, while others continue to struggle with technical, financial, or governance challenges. Recognition is therefore not a reward for perfection but an affirmation of shared values: water as a human right, water services kept in public or in community hands, and opposition to the privatization of essential water resources.
The experience of Merina Dakhar, highlights an important opportunity for the growing Blue Communities movement. Communities should not face these challenges in isolation. Instead, Blue Communities can strengthen one another through solidarity, sharing technical expertise, exchanging practical experiences, providing peer learning opportunities, mobilizing financial support where possible, and advocating together for greater public investment in community-managed water systems.
Such solidarity can take many forms; virtual exchanges between water committees, study visits, joint training programmes, partnerships between established and emerging Blue Communities, and collaborative fundraising for infrastructure improvements. By supporting one another, communities become less vulnerable to the pressures that often accompany privatization and commercial exploitation of water services.
Merina Dakhar reminds us that community management is not without its difficulties. It demands commitment, accountability, and continuous learning. Yet its story also demonstrates that when communities are trusted to govern their own water resources, they can build systems that are more equitable, more responsive, and more firmly rooted in the public interest.
As the Blue Communities movement continues to expand across Africa and beyond, Merina Dakhar stands as a powerful example of what can be achieved when communities place solidarity, participation, and the human right to water at the centre of water governance.