COTE D'IVOIRE: UN steps in as war, waste, lack of rain dry up water supplies in northern Korhogo

Photo: IRIN

Pumping water from well in a village near Korhogo

ABIDJAN, 6 June 2005 (IRIN) - Rains that are two months late, coupled with maintenance problems and wastage due to war, are threatening residents of Korhogo in northern Cote d'Ivoire with an acute shortage of drinking water, aid officials said Monday. "If the rains don't come, there are only a couple of days left of supplies in the dam," warned Francois Enten of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Korhogo. After civil war in September 2002 disrupted government services and state utilities in the rebel-held and relatively arid north, the ICRC began working alongside the state-owned water company SODECI to guarantee a steady supply of drinking water to the city. But after repeated cuts and maintenance problems during the almost three-year conflict, the dam, which is the city's main source of water, has almost dried up. This is a result of poor rain in 2004 and seasonal rains this year being well behind schedule. "We get up every day at 4 in the morning to fetch water," said one resident reached by phone. "We go from door to door to see if someone has water in the tap, but often we still return empty-handed. We don't have enough water to prepare food." To help resolve the crisis, the ICRC and the UN children's agency UNICEF are setting up provisional supplies to cater for at least 100,000 people, or two-thirds of the town's population. As of 1 June, UNICEF began hauling water in trucks from the nearby town of Ferkessedougou to fill 30 emergency reservoirs each with 10,000 litres of water. Schools and health clinics will also receive water via UNICEF. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), people need between 20 and 50 litres of water a day to satisfy their needs, and between two and five litres of safe drinking water. Fenten said the ICRC has set up three water distribution points in town and is planning to rehabilitate 15 hydraulic water pumps that have fallen in disrepair. But it is also distributing leaflets to warn against waste. Open taps and leaks are a major problem in the rebel-held north because of disrepair and lack of maintenance on the one hand, and over-consumption on the other, as residents up until now had not had to pay for water or electricity for more than two years. "There has been an enormous waste and we have called on the population to consume sensibly," said Kim Gordon-Bates of ICRC. After rebel forces occupied the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire in the opening days of the civil war, bills for water, electricity or telephone services stopped coming from the utilities based in the main city Abidjan in the government-held south. With no revenue flowing in from the rebel zone, the privately managed utilities virtually stopped investing in maintenance. As a result, the infrastructure in many areas began to break down. The emergency measures now in place in Korhogo will help the townspeople but not those living further out, a UNICEF official noted. The rural population will have to make do with water from wells and other natural sources until the rains come. And even when the rains come, major work will be needed on the supply system, said Francois Sonon of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Korhogo. "In the long term, we really a total overhaul in the northern region. The dam in Korhogo needs major repairs, is not very clean and needs to be purified. And we should also look at the hydraulic pumps," he said.