CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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Congo-Brazzaville |
SOCIAL CONDITIONS
There’s not enough drinking water
for Congo-Brazzaville’s populationIn Brazzaville’s and Pointe-Noire’s outskirts, most families have to get their water from frequently polluted old-style water points. In rural areas, the people get their water from rivers, rain barrels, wells and springs. Women spend a good part of their working day getting water.
Melanie Boniambé is completely exasperated, but for the moment she can’t change the situation. She says: «Just look at my hands. They’re as hard as men’s hands. And all because I’m the one whose got to go for water. Every day I’ve got to traipse long distances to get water from the wells, carrying containers on my head and in my hands».
Like many women living on Brazzaville’s northern outskirts, she’s got to get up at dawn in the hope of finding water in private wells such as those at Kenakole, Ebosso, Bouya, or at the radio and television (CRTV) building site. And water is’nt free. A 25 litre-can of water which used to contain cooking oil, costs between 75 CFA francs and 100 CFA francs at the private wells and 50 CFA francs at the radio-TV building site.
The same situation prevails in the city’s southern outskirts, where households have to make use of frequently polluted old-style water points. It’s worse for large families. The fact is, water requirements (for drinking and washing) far outstrip the meagre resources. As women don’t have enough money to buy water each day, they have to draw it from polluted rivers (thus increasing the risk of cholera), or from water points situated just below the surrounding mountains.
Deaths due to water
Recent surveys reveal that 80% of diseases and more than one-third of deaths in southern hemisphere countries, are due to contaminated water. Dr. Lamine Cissé Sarr is WHO‘s representative in Congo, and on the 7 April World Health Day, spoke along the same lines. A survey carried out in January-February 2003 among schools in Brazzaville’s outskirts, pointed out why «children’s way of life is particularly deficient. It’s because of lack of water and hygienic sanitary facilities». A water engineer, Medard Adongui, goes even further: «Water is a basic need. When children are deprived of clean water, their health and their development are under threat».
Things are’nt getting any better
Brazzaville’s situation is pretty desperate. Several areas of the Plateau district — Poto-Poto, Mfilou in Moukondo, are often without water. Papa Pierre gazes sadly at the tap which has been dry for more than four years. «How can one possibly make improvements in our way of life when we’ve no water».
UNDP‘s 2002 Human Development Report states that an evaluation carried out in 1996 within the context of Initiative Africa 2000, reckons that 69% of Congolese living in urban areas lack drinking water, and 11% in rural areas. In 1996, only 40% of the urban population and 9% of the rural population had access to adequate water supplies and drainage systems. These figures are still way-off the objectives laid down at the launch of the Ten-Year Plan for Providing Drinking Water and Drainage Systems (1980-1990). A 100% success rate was aimed at in urban areas and 50% in rural areas.
It also should be emphasised that in Brazzaville, as well as the somewhat inefficient pumping stations installed by the National Water Distribution Company (SNDE) at Djoué in the south of the city and at Djiri in the north, about 30% of burst pipes have had to be repaired in the decaying network. Citizens of Brazzaville living close to the burst pipes, are taking water from the leak pipes for cooking and washing purposes. The same’s happening in Pointe-Noire, Congo-Brazzaville’s economic capital and oil centre, 510 km south of Brazzaville. The SNDE‘s not functioning to maximum capacity here, hence the low water pressure and many burst pipes. The UNDP says that a bacteriological analysis of the water reveals it’s unfit for human consumption.
A veritable way of the cross
The daily trip to water points is nothing short of a way of the cross for women who’ve already got a multitude of tasks to get through. Brigitte Louzingou is a cleaning lady in Brazzaville’s posh Och district and also baby-sits for her employer. Here’s what happened. «A few days ago, I’d gone for water not far from the house where I work. I was carrying a number of containers and there was a crowd at the single tap. So I had to wait my turn. While all this was going on, my employer found someone else to replace me as the baby had been left alone. When I got back, she nearly killed me. However, the child was asleep». What was I supposed to do? There was’nt any water in the house».
Lack of good clean water means that children are liable to get cholera and diarrhoea, and even adults can catch water-borne diseases.
- Jean-Valère Ngoubangoyi and Croissant Mvouma, Congo-Brazzaville, September 2003
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