CI-NEWS

President Biya ‘tastes’ water scarcity in Yaounde!

2019-07-23

No: 437

President Biya ‘tastes’ water scarcity in Yaounde!

By Yuh Manigha R.

Cameroon’s political capital records repeated water cuts in 2019 despite government’s bid to multiply water treatment and distribution plants.

The distribution of water in the town of Yaoundé - Cameroon’s political capital - witnessed a constant disruption in May with households of the town unable to have liquid every two or three days depending on the neighbourhood.

The situation went worse on the country’s National Day, May 20, when there was no water at the main ceremonial ground (the May 20th Boulevard) where Cameroon’s President Paul BIYA chaired commemorative activities.

Before considering uncommon water sources, some Yaounde city dwellers described the frequent water cuts as terrifying. “It was strange and terrifying for me to go fetching water from a well on a day like 20th May. I could fall into the uncovered pit given that it has be so long since I did such”, Kisito Abang , a father of three, exclaimed. He added that he spent quite so much money to buy what he termed mineral water.

The situation pushed Water and Energy Minster, Gaston Eloundou Essomba, to the Akomnyada water treatment and distribution centre in the Nyong and So’o Division on May 21 where he learned about the conditions of the plant which provides Yaounde and its environs with a maximum of 150.000 cubic meters of water a day in addition to the 50.000 that comes from the Mfou Plant in Nkolbisson.

“The facilities here are so deteriorated that some work 25?low their potential. We need to upgrade the deteriorated production equipment and strengthen their maintenance and upkeep,” saysGervais Bolenga, Managing Director of the country’s state-owned Water Utilities company, Camwater.

He is corroborated by Akwa Patrick Kum, Board Chair of Camwater. According to him, the water shortage stems from leakages that have deprived households of up to 65 percent of the water that is treated. To address this problem, CAMWATER is calling on the population to report cases of leakages to management for immediate repairs.

The proactive board chair has opened his whatsapp contact for any reports in this connection. It suffices to send a photo of the leakage point to him for onward transmission to CAMWATER technicians so that the damage can be fixed within hours.

Despite this major mobilization of teams, the distribution of drinking water in the Cameroonian capital was again interrupted late in the evening of 23 May 2019, in some neighborhoods, and early in the morning of 24 May 2019, in others.

The ministry of water and the water utilities corporation, Camwater, say a drop in the water level at major catchments has also caused the problem. But other critical sources hold that the shortage has occurred over the years, explaining that new infrastructure was not built to match the city’s rapidly growing population and that the unplanned expansion of the sprawling city has also left some neighbourhoods unconnected to the city’s water network. “We have never had a drop of water here from Camwater since the history of this place”, says an inhabitant of Damas, a neighbourhood in Yaounde noted for its taps running dry. Some people in this neighbourhood confirm that they have to trek for miles to fetch the liquid since digging a borehole entails huge sums of money.

“When things get worse we keep our dresses dirty for a while and we manage to get only drinking water”, adds Jane, an inhabitant. “You don’t have enough water to clean and most of the things lie there dirty,” Abong says. “Because you have to take out extra money from your pocket to buy water while paying bills… you are spending more on water.”

Following many complaints from Yaounde city dwellers and its environs regarding public water and sanitation servicers in January 2019, water Minister requested his collaborators to deepen reflections in order to generally improve the quality of drinking water supply services in the country.

The distribution component of water in Cameroon, initially managed by the private sector, was handed over to Camwater in April 2018 though the birth of the corporation was originally to produce water only for households.

Cameroon is crisscrossed by many rivers that run from the country’s mountainous north to the south and is believed to have one of the world’s largest reserves of fresh water.

A PHP Error was encountered

A PHP Error was encountered

President Biya ‘tastes’ water scarcity in Yaounde!