Water Supply : Scarcity Hits Douala

The 22nd of March was another day to commemorate World Water Day, and the people of Douala joined the commemorations in one way or another. The city is notorious for lack of potable water. Surrounded by lakes and rivers, the population had little access to drinking water. Daily, people are seen in neighbourhoods and streets with empty containers in search of water.  Some individuals have dug boreholes, also known as "forage", and in most cases provide water to those around them free of charge, while some owners often charge FCFA 500 per month to help clean and treat the water.
For some neighbourhoods, running tap water has been a distant dream for more than four years. On a daily basis, people flock to the mobile Guinness Ndogbong site to fetch drinking water. Raoul Djegue, a Douala resident who was found collecting water in front of Mobil Guinness, said he collects drinking water every day. "Every day, I carry empty containers in my car and fill them at Mobil Guinness before I return home in the evening.  We have never had water from our taps for the past four years Consequently, we use water from a borehole dug by the landlord, but I fetch water from here daily for drinking", Raoul Djegue complained.
Raoul's case is not different as thousands of taps have been without water for even longer. With all these challenges to portable drinking water, Douala is still plagued by water-borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and typhoid.
The President of the Cameroonian Coalition of Consumers Association, Prince Mpondo, regretted that there are many government ...