A--D -- Warka Village Cameroon

Introduction

One of the most pressing and concerning human rights issues being witnessed today is the continued dispossession of traditional lands and territories from indigenous peoples considered as ‘primitive’, economically unproductive, or not in line with modern aspirations. There are no rights for the indigenous peoples and by eradicating their traditional living style,we are lousing a treasure of intangible cultural heritage and socio-environmental structures that have codeveloped over millennia.
With disappearing cultures, we also face the disappearance of languages, wisdom and knowledge systems which, if gone, will be an immense loss for humanity as a whole. It is also a severe environmental threat. Indigenous peoples worldwide have been
the custodians of forests and other ecosystems for millennia, living in relative harmony with nature, taking
no more than what they need, thereby leaving enough
for the ecological systems to regenerate, and for other species to continue to thrive.

Impact

Warka Water Inc is a nonprofit focused on innovative, and truly sustainable solutions, to some of humanity’s most enduring issues. Since 2019, together with local community, we started the warka village, to empower the local ethnic groups and restore the natural ecosystem. To bring a positive impact on the community by invigorating the local economy and providing women and children opportunities to invest their time in care, education, and other cultural and productive activities.
Our work is based on an in-depth study of local culture and the environment. The rediscovery of ancient traditional techniques and the use of local natural materials merged with cutting-edge technology. we aim to empower the local ethnic groups and restore the natural ecosystem.
Since the begining of the project, 5 childrens already manage to go to school. Every community's member has now acces to water without having to walk toward the jungle for 30min.

Core team

Our Warka Water Team is composed of Arturo Vittori, renowned architect, who create and develop Warka Water in 2017;
Pia Dosseh, Founder of Félicité (a french non-profit committed to help communities in developing countries since 2016), and president of Warka Water France;
Mélanie Lacroix, Young architect, inspired by Arturo’s work, who founded Warka Water France with Arturo;
Barabara Guassen, born and raised in Cameroon who created Warka water Cameroon, with the help of Arturo, to help communities of her country.

We work together with local member of the local community:
Biang Yves, Traditional Chef of the village Bibambi II. At the very begining of the process, he helped us to adapt the design of the pre-project and gave a part of his land when he was convinced that we were here to help and work with the pygmie community.
Then we worked more deeply with Chef Simon, leader of the pygmies. He helped us to understand the needs and traditions of the pygmies. Together we were able to design the perfect infrastructure for the community. He and the community members, showed and teached us how and where to collect material for the construction in respect with the forest and their traditions.
Every workers of the construction site are local craftman, like Daniel Ondo Nze, carpenter. Local and traditional technics are used to build the village. This allowed the warka design to evolve according to local know-how.