7/13/14, "Water everywhere for DR Congo city yet scarcely a drop to drink," AFP, Albert Kambale, Goma, DR Congo
"Goma, a
city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, sits by one of the world's
largest freshwater reservoirs and has some of Africa's heaviest annual
rainfall, yet it is a thirsty place.
Most of the
city's one million residents, living close to the shores of Lake Kivu,
have to struggle every day to fetch water home.
From
daybreak, an endless stream of cyclists heads to the lake and back,
filling battered containers with as much water as they can carry.
"The people drink this water. They do everything with it," the 46-year-old French charity worker said.
A single cyclist can transport up to 120 litres (about 250 pints) to be sold on to private water stores.
At a rate of 10 trips to the lake each day, the carriers can expect to earn up to $10 (seven euros) between dawn and dusk.
But by the end of one morning it started to rain and water collector Lambert Biriko decided to call it a day.
"Today is ruined," he said, adding that residents would gather run-off rain water instead and "won't buy anything from us".
Located
on the border with Rwanda, Goma is the capital of DR Congo's North Kivu
province, which has been wracked by bloody unrest for more than 20
years, displacing scores of thousands of people.
In
those two decades, the city's population has exploded, swelled by an
influx of refugees from neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi as well as local
Congolese seeking shelter from marauding armed bands.
At the Sports Circle roundabout in the centre of Goma, an old woman washed herself in a puddle next to a pump where lorries fill up with water before transporting it to other neighbourhoods.
Fiston
Mugisho, 20, is unemployed and spends the day washing the few
motor-taxis that want to stop.
He has to buy water from the cyclists
each day or walk to another neighbourhood where houses hooked up to the
main grid sell what comes out of their taps.
"But you don't always find
water," Mugisho said. Even for those properties that do enjoy running
water, the supply is frequently cut.
As
in many other parts of DR Congo -- the world's least developed country
according to the United Nations -- the people of Goma have learned to
fend for themselves after decades of government neglect.
The
lack of basic infrastructure has given rise to the Lucha (Fight for
Change) protest movement. A shortage of water, electricity and
opportunities for work shows "a problem of governance" and "a lack of
seriousness", according to Micheline Mwendike, a member of the
apolitical body.
Backed by regional segments of the political opposition, Lucha is gaining momentum as it accuses authorities of using the insecurity as an excuse for inaction.
- 'Not normal' -
The movement stages regular protests and has harnessed the power of social media, using Facebook and the Twitter hashtag #GomaNeedsWater.
Paluku did not respond to repeated requests for comment from AFP.
Deogratias
Kizibisha, the North Kivu director of public water distribution firm
Regideso, said that 45 percent of Goma residents are connected to the
central supply. Lucha claims the real rate is closer to 20 percent.
Jean-Pierre Kambere is a nurse in Birere, Goma's poorest slum.
"Adding chlorine is not enough" to make water gathered from Lake Kivu safe to drink, he said.
"Every week patients come to us with diarrhoea or fever" caused by drinking polluted water, Kambere added.
"It's not normal to live like this," she said. "The authorities need to provide water to every home."" image from wikipedia
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