Water shortage posing health problems

Yaounde's water shortage is posing increasing health and sanitation hazards to the city's 1.2 million inhabitants, sources in the Cameroonian capital told IRIN on Monday. "The situation in hospitals, schools and government buildings is particularly acute," one source said. The shortage is due to a damaged pipeline some 50 km south of Yaounde which the Cameroonian water authority, SNEC, says it is unable to repair. The government announced rationing on 8 September but the piped water supply dried up last week. "At present people collect water in three ways," a diplomatic source told IRIN. "Through natural wells, having it trucked in and stored in their own tanks or by putting out buckets to collect rain water." In the first week of September, the World Bank informed SNEC of the implications of the water shortages on the health of the population. Although the shortages have been alleviated because they occurred during the rainy season, local observers have expressed astonishment that the leak in the pipeline has not yet been repaired. A French team arrived one week ago to try to fix the problem, a local source told IRIN. President Paul Biya has announced in the local media that the problem will be resolved by 6 October.