Dry taps in Bamenda: An epidemic begging to strike

When The Post first raised the alarm about a year ago, the news was that the Cameroon Water Corporation, CDE, was supplying brown, sticky and smelly water to the inhabitants of Bamenda, the chief town of the Northwest Region.

We sought to know from the authorities of CDE why this was the case but they were hostile to our Reporters.

A friendlier Regional Delegate of Water Rescources, Emmanuel Moki Ngando told our Bureau Chief, Chris Mbunwe, that he presented a sample of the doubtful water to CDE and was told that the water tank at Mbatu village was being cleaned.

Ngando said inter alia:

“The population should understand that we have two water tanks in Bamenda; one in Mendakwe and the other in Mbatu and the one that is dripping dirty water is that of Mbatu that supplies most parts of the city.

“My worry is why is it that we keep seeing this dirty water with blackish settlements like the one you are seeing in front of us. I am tempted to think that somebody somewhere at CDE is not doing his job. I have given them up to July 15, (2014) to redress this situation or they face the consequences.

“Meantime, I have contacted my hierarchy, because this issue is serious. You will not imagine that I asked these fellows of CDE to explain why all of this is happening and there was no direct answer. When the time shall come, somebody will answer for what is happening.”

Almost a year after this plaintive cry from the Delegate of Water, no one has yet, accounted for why the over 700,000 inhabitants of this sprawling city have remained potential victims of a water related epidemic. Annoyingly though, is the regularity with which prohibitive bills and other charges continue to flow to hapless inhabitants of Bamenda. Worthy of note is also the arrogance with which CDE provocatively advertises non existent services in pages of newspapers and other media channels.

The tell-tale signs of a pending health catastrophe already there for all to see. The administrator and pharmacist at the Northwest Regional Special Fund for Health Promotion, Dr Richard Mbarika Fondoh is better placed to confirm this. Going by him, there has been a recent steady increase in the consumption of medicines from the central medical store of the Region, used to cure water borne disease due to the water crisis that has pushed the population into consuming water from doubtful sources.

He told The Post that water fetched from untreated wells and streams which pass through the heart of the town wherein people defecate, bathe and even empty septic tanks are vectors of viruses, protozoan’s, typhoid and amoeba that when consumed or used untreated, results in skin infections, cholera epidemics and running stomachs. He warns that should the situation persist, the city of Bamenda might be hit by a health pandemic soon. He is right, because hospitals and other health institutions in Bamenda have continued to register increasing cases of water borne infections.

As the taps remain dry and disaster looms, the populace has resorted to unorthodox means of acquiring this basic need of life. Car washing points have been closed down, putting their owners out of business. Hotels now use service vans to fetch water from the outskirts of the the city.From time to time CDE water drips, and long queues of people with jerry cans practically fight to fetch it while it lasts.

In apparent desperation, inhabitants of Foncha Junction, St Louis Junction and Ntamunche have resorted to buying untreated well water at Mile 2 Junction and Cow Street. A common sight in town nowadays, is people taking along water filled plastic jugs to their offices or business premises. They use it for water closets. The probability is that pit toilets, with the attendant unsanitary consequences may become more practicable in Bamenda city, in an era of high-tech flush toilets if the water problem is not checked.

At Ntamunche Quarters in Mile 3, like elsewhere, locals now depend on ground water from raffia bushes for cooking, laundry and drinking. Though of doubtful quality, people across all age groups rise as early as 4am daily, to line up in long queues in the struggle that sometimes runs into many hours.

According to Joseph Ngong Nsom, an inhabitant of Ntamunche, he survives the situation by taking along his 20 litre containers to work every day to look for water.

“I collect my containers and those of my neighbours every day in my car to work. I fetch water at work, but some times the search takes me to Mile 4, Upstation and even GMI. I do not know how long it will last but I pray it ends soon; It is really ensnaring and precarious.”

Inhabitants like John kitu and Nadine Manka’a lay the blame on the Bamenda City Council for the privatization of public taps.

“We blame CDE and the Bamenda City Council for the privatization of public taps in Bamenda. The situation could have been better managed now by the Council and the administration. We need more water catchments, especially as the town is fast growing bigger by the day. Why should we rely on one water tank that is old and dilapidated at Mendankwe? The whole network needs total overhauling and the pipes replaced”, they suggest.

Ben Song Ayen, an inhabitant of Metta Quarters’, says he is forced to interrupt his sleep daily, at midnight, to keep watch on his tap, to eventually “trap” a little of the precious liquid when CDE so wishes.

Joy Yong, a resident of Mile 3, like Evelyn Ngong of Banjah street, take along water containers to work in the morning and after work at 6pm the water hunt begins and at times hills and valleys are visited in the search.

Clementine Musi of Metta Quarters notes: “I try to sleep, but I can’t each night, because you have to get up at particular times to fetch water, at times late into the night; the Army rescue comes at times to distribute water but the distance from my house to the distribution point is too far. Only God can save us from this mess. One can cope without light but one cannot cope without water”.

CDE Communique

On July 7, 2014, the Regional Director of CDE, David Euloge BAlEBA issued a communiqué across major radio stations in Bamenda announcing that due to a partial puncture of the main pipe size350mm, the speed increase of water resulted in the coloration of water across the city. He stated that a technical team was at work to salvage the situation. It took a week for the city inhabitants to have water with the right color running in their respective taps. The situation repeated itself several times especially after every down pour.

The early days of October 2014 have remained fresh in the minds of Bamenda city dwellers. After weeks of water cuts and wild rumours of corpses discovered at the Mendakwe dam, it took the Regional Director of CDE David Euloge BAlEBA seventeen days to clear the air on November17 2014. In a communiqué dated November 17, 2014,the CDE man wrote:

“The Regional Director of CDE NWR informs her customers that the technical teams sent out for repairs of the draining sluice gate at the dam which got jammed at half-open position during the maintenance operation is still in action. This delicate operation necessitated extra professionals, notably deep water diving experts to permit us return the deluice gate to its usual position of total closure so as to reduce water loss from the dam to a strict minimum…”

He added that the intervention has been successful and they were counting on the natural refilling of the said dam by rain water on one the hand and by available springs and that the production and supply of safe drinkable water in Bamenda resumed progressively since November 15, 2014 and was to improve as days go by. Days, weeks and months have gone by and the situation is far from becoming a reality, leaving Bamenda a near desert with shallow oasis.

The situation has given employment opportunities to water hawkers and vendors who sell water to the public fetched from swarms and untreated wells, bore holes and springs and only God Knows the resultant effects.

ATTEMTED REMEDY

The misery of Bamenda inhabitants apparently attracted the sympathy of the administration. Northwest Governor, Adolphe Lele L’Afrique Chuffo Duben chaired a series of meetings aimed at salvaging the situation. Streams and springs were diverted to the dam as part of frantic efforts to remedy the situation. A committee was created with the SDO for Mezam Felix Ngelle Nguelle as Chairman in collaboration with CAMWATER and the ARMY RESCUE with a onerous task of distributing water, especially to the most deprived inhabitants of the Mile 3 area and other highly affected neighborhoods. Just after its creation, the initiative was confronted by a vast scarcity of water tankers.

“The effort has been a failure, because of the deficiency of water tankers. We always make sure that Quarter heads are informed to alert the people to come out at various hours and get water from us, managing with two tankers, but there is hope. A Chinese company is in town going round for feasibility studies to construct water reservoirs in Bamendas 1, 2, 3 and Tubah.

Before 2017, water crisis will be a forgotten reality”. The prayer on the lips of Bamenda people today is that God should send either Moses or Joshua so save them, just like the Israelites from this bottomless pit of hopelessness or pray for the rains to come fast and save the Bamenda populace as hoped by the Mezam SDO.