Brazzaville remains dry, despite efforts to deliver water

For the majority of the 800,000 residents in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, one of the legacies of years of armed conflict is the daily struggle to find safe drinking water. "It is very rare to find a neighbourhood in Brazzaville where there's clean water twenty-four hours a day," Gabriel Koumba, a Brazzaville resident told IRIN. "Most neighbourhoods get water only in the morning or at night." The country is emerging from years of conflict. A civil war in 1997 restored former president Dennis Sassou-Nguesso, and ushered in a period of ethnic unrest. Southern-based rebel groups agreed to a final peace accord in March 2003. Although the Republic of Congo is one of Africa's largest petroleum producers, its infrastructure remains poor. Water in Brazzaville is drawn from the Djoue and Djiri rivers using a system created in the 1950s. It has been crumbling for years. On average, only 51 percent of Brazzaville's inhabitants now have intermittent-access to potable water, according to statistics provided by the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Water Resources. In newer or suburban neighbourhoods such as Maman Mbouale, Massengo and Makabandilou, piped water hardly exists. Only 60,279 residents of the city are registered clients of the Societe National de Distribution d'Eau (SNDE), a state-owned water utility. But paying customers say they do not get any more water than other residents. "We pay bills monthly but don't get water every day," lamented Lucie Kimia, a fruit and vegetable vendor. "Those of us who pay [SNDE] can spend an entire week without it." Water costs Residents often search for water, transporting it by wheelbarrow or taxi. "It's a sad and worrisome scene," Koumba said. Officially, SNDE has a monopoly on water distribution but with the frequent cuts there is profiteering. Enterprising residents store it, and then after the water is turned off in their neighbourhood they sell it. They can make a profit of 50 US cents for a 25-litre barrel. A connection to SNDE's water network costs 58,200 CFA francs ($117) but clients still have to buy water privately. "On top of the monthly bills, we are forced to pay between $1 and $2 in taxi fares in search of water," said a resident of Mikalou on the north side of Brazzaville. "We spend almost as much on transportation as we do in water bills." Before the conflict, Brazzaville had public water fountains but most have now been destroyed. Gabriel Ossibi, a teacher who earns 40,000 francs ($80) a month, says that, for him, the cost of water is prohibitive. The few places where water is always available include military installations, government buildings and the city's three largest hospitals. Failed rehabilitation With the government lacking funds to repair the water system, it authorised a less ambitious project of digging eight deep-water wells to serve the 160,000 residents of the northern Brazzaville neighbourhoods of Nkombo and Massengo, and Moukondo in the east. A Chinese company won the four-billion-franc ($8 million) contract but the government ran short of money. The wells remain unfinished. Efforts to privatise SNDE have also failed. A British company, Bi-Water, won the bid but the privatisation committee stopped the deal. The committee said that Bi-Water expected the government to pay 80 percent of the cost of refurbishing the water network and planned to raise the cost of water from 180 to 394 CFA francs per cubic meter. The company also expected a 100-percent exemption on taxes and customs duties and planned to lay off local SNDE employees. "We are in the process of annulling the decree with Bi-Water," said Isidore Mvouba, the minister for the Coordination of Governmental Affairs, Transport and Privatisation. Residents in Mansimou, in the south of Brazzaville, have some hope of obtaining running water with a new $53,000 project. But for residents in the rest of Brazzaville, there is little water at the end of the tunnel.