Nearly 2,000 people in the Ivorian city of Agboville are struggling to find drinking water after sewage-filled flood waters poisoned wells that had been their sole source of water.
“[Health workers] are telling us not to drink water from the wells, but we don’t know where else we’re going to find water,” N’Guessan Pacone, 30, told IRIN by phone from Agboville, located about 90km from the commercial capital, Abidjan. N'Guessan's and hundreds of other residents' homes were severely damaged in the floods and their belongings destroyed.
Residents say diarrhoea, malaria, and other illnesses are spreading in the area. Over 1,000 people are still displaced from floods that hit the riverside neighbourhoods on 27 July, local sources said.
Most people in the area do not have running water and get their water from wells in their yards.
Many of the families’ wells might have to be destroyed, according to an official with the mayor’s office. “The flood has contaminated these wells and hygiene experts say it’s probably not possible to treat and rehabilitate them,” said Ablo Gnamien Anatole, head of civil protection, public hygiene and environment. Most people in the area dump raw sewage into water channels, which overflowed in the recent flooding, Ablo said.
“The biggest problem we have here right now is one of sanitation,” he told IRIN. He said local authorities and community members are meeting to decide how to provide a drinking water source for those affected.
Resident Dodé Monnaho Urbain, 26, told IRIN: “Many people, by no choice of their own, are continuing to drink from the wells.” Residents said many people cannot afford to buy water, available for sale by the plastic bag or bucket.
Local Red Cross workers, who have been assisting residents since the floods hit, are advising displaced families not to return to their homes until the area can be cleaned up and disinfected, and a suitable source of water found, said Marie Pierre Ogou Inchaud, president of the Red Cross in Agboville.
“We’re asking people to stay away from their homes, to avoid the worst,” she told IRIN. Most of the displaced are staying with friends or relatives in the area.
Many families lost all their mattresses, clothes, appliances and documents when floodwaters engulfed their homes, residents said. They said they are in desperate need of sheets, food, water, and medicines.
“Water just took over everywhere,” Ceka Chia Blandine told IRIN. “Our yard looked like the sea.”
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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
