Only 40.5% of population has access to clean water, minister says

Only 40.5 percent of the Republic of Congo's 3.1 million people have access to clean water, the country's energy, mines and water resources minister, Philippe Mvouo, said on Saturday upon his return home from a conference for African water ministers that had been held in Burkina Faso. "In our country, 23.4 percent of our urban population has access to clean water provided by the national water distribution company (Snde - Societe nationale de distribution d'eau), while 17.1 percent of our rural population has access to clean water, giving us a total of 40.5 percent of the overall Congolese population with access to clean water - less than half of our population," he said in Brazzaville, the ROC capital. At least 50 percent of urban households were still using pit latrines, he said, while at least 30 percent were using septic systems. He added that 15 percent to 20 percent of urban dwellers had no access to proper infrastructure, while some 70 percent of people living in rural areas hade no toilets whatsoever. The situation, he said, demanded urgent attention and collective action, as the issue of clean water could not be separated from that of sanitation. "All these health questions in our countries are closely linked to problems of sanitation," he said. "Living conditions in Africa are not always healthy, which contributes to Africa having the highest mortality rate in the world." In Congo's second-largest city, Pointe-Noire, the Snde is unable to meet current demands, and often suffers from breakdowns and leakages. A recent bacteriological study of the system's water found it to be unfit for consumption. In some densely populated neighbourhoods, some 80 percent of the city's 500,000 people get their water from wells. Brazzaville's two Snde water plants - one in Djoue, south of the city, the other in Djiri, north of the city - are likewise unable to meet the needs of the city's 1.1 million residents, and the aging delivery network experiences significant leakages. Mvouo said that in the country’s rural regions, people got their water from rivers, rainwater stored in barrels, springs and wells, the improper management of which often led to outbreaks of water-borne diseases among the population.