Children pumping water from the only well operating in a northern village. The lack of a proper administration in the rebel held north of the country, since the start of the conflict has resulted in tens of thousands of residents in the north having free access to drinking water and electricity, crippling the infrastructure of the national water distribution company.
Credit: IRIN |
|
Weeks after insurgents had seized the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire in a bid to topple the West African nation's president, the water and power companies sent an internal memo to their 1,560 employees.
It was strictly and formally forbidden, the consortium’s briefing said, for any workers to get involved in the political problems that had split the country in two and caused the exodus of almost 2 million people towards the government-controlled south.
Nearly four years later, the country's providers of clean drinking water and electricity are still trying to preserve an image of neutrality, despite numerous attacks on their staff and facilities by both rebels and government supporters. In October 2003, pro-government mobs besieged the consortium’s headquarters in the main city of Abidjan and destroyed several cars. Later that year, an employee and his wife were beaten so brutally by rebels that the woman died of her injuries two weeks after the assault.
"You could say we haven't received much recognition for our efforts," said the general manager of the utilities companies, Marcel Zadi Kessy, with a wry smile.
Neutral utilities
The Water Distribution Company of Cote d’Ivoire (SODECI) and the Ivorian Electricity Corporation (CIE) are owned by the France-based Bouygues conglomerate. The companies have been targeted in Cote d’Ivoire because they continued to supply water and electricity to the north after the rebels took over the area.
With most of their workers having fled the north, and with the absence of a proper administration in rebel territory, SODECI and CIE had no means of forcing subscribers to pay their monthly bills. As a result, tens of thousands of residents in the north have had free access to drinking water and electricity since September 2002. This sparked rumours among government supporters that the utilities companies were siding with the rebel movement. As a cabinet minister of the ruling Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) once said, "If we had cut off the north and starved the population, we could have won this war a long time ago."
The rebels, on their side, accused SODECI workers who had remained in the north of spying for their foe, President Laurent Gbagbo.
New battles
Now that the fighting has stopped, public animosity towards the utilities companies has faded. However, they now face a host of fresh, even more serious, problems: massive leaks and spills, a crumbling infrastructure, a lack of maintenance and huge financial losses. Power and water cuts, which were extremely rare in the not-too-distant past, now occur frequently in both the government-controlled south and the rebel-held north.
In the mid-1980s, Cote d'Ivoire was one of the most prosperous nations in sub-Saharan Africa, with an urban infrastructure nearly equal to that of a European country. The economic and political crises that eventually led to civil war, however, have put the water and power systems under increasing pressure.
"The revenues we get from customers in the south cover our losses in the north to a certain extent," said Kouadio Amani, vice-manager of SODECI. "But we're losing massive amounts of money every year, and we are not able to invest in maintenance until people in the north start paying up."
The arid north of Cote d'Ivoire has been hardest hit by the water crisis. In the northern town of Korhogo in 2005, poor rains, coupled with maintenance problems at the main dam, left taps dry for nearly a month.
Credit: IRIN |
|
Rebel-held Korhogo in the arid north of Cote d'Ivoire has been hardest hit by the crisis, despite a public-awareness campaign against wasting water and a rebel-imposed ban on car washing. In 2005, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) helped provide clean water to the city's women and children, as poor rains, coupled with maintenance problems at the main dam, left taps dry for nearly a month. Even today, households have water only twice a week, and the supply is switched on in different neighbourhoods on different days of the week. The dam still needs repairs, but SODECI said it would not do any major work until the political crisis is resolved.
In the rebel capital of Bouake recently, residents were without running water for six weeks after a main hydraulic pump broke down. SODECI refused to foot the bill until customers had paid their invoices. The situation was resolved when the minister of infrastructure reinstalled the pump - against the will of SODECI.
Although the water shortages have never sparked outbreaks of cholera or other life-threatening diseases, local and foreign nongovernmental organisations have had to step in to guarantee people a steady supply of water. "During the last shortage, we managed to get clean water from the reservoirs of a nearby textile factory," said Virginie Briet of Médecins Sans Frontières, which runs Bouake’s main hospital.
Changing mentality
The most pressing issue now facing the utilities companies is figuring out how to persuade consumers to pay for a commodity they have been getting for free for four years.
Some people in the north have complained that they simply do not have the money, pointing out rising poverty and rampant unemployment. However, others have said that most monthly water bills are actually much lower than the amount people spend on other commodities, like a recharge card for a mobile phone. Ivorians pay on average about US $30 per year for access to clean water.
"Once the administration is redeployed in the north, people will start paying their bills," said Benoit Soro of the Korhogo-based organisation ARK, which has been involved in distributing clean water. "If they get fined, or if they have to go to court, they will realise soon enough that it is their duty to pay."
Observers, however, said it would not happen anytime soon. The rebels still refuse to hand in their guns, and presidential elections slated for October – which are crucial to sealing peace - are likely to be postponed again. The European Union has pledged $1.7 million to help repair the aging infrastructure - provided the country is reunited.
Against all odds, the water and power consortium tries to remain optimistic. A recent series of talks with rebel leaders and representatives of civil society convinced general manager Kessy that "there is no longer any opposition to paying".
"Mentalities are changing," he said. "People are beginning to understand that the future of our company is at stake."
[ENDS]
|