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Water is now being rationed in Yaounde, Cameroon, because of a shortage caused by problems at a treatment plant since the end of July, news organisations reported.
Yaounde has now been divided into three sectors, each of which will receive water three times a week.
The shortage is reportedly due to leaking pipeline at a treatment plant some 50 km south of Yaounde, which the Cameroonian water authority, SNEC, does not have the technological capacity to repair.
Officials have blamed the Canadian company that built the system and which has since left Cameroon.
Medical experts reportedly say that some Yaounde citizens have begun to use other, less safe, sources of water and there are fears of an increase in diarrhoea, typhoid and bilharzia.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions