Cameroon’s water supply company has 8 days to restore water supply in Yaounde
Cameroon water utilities, Camwater, has until September 13 to ensure an effective supply of water in Cameroon’s capital city. The order was given by the minister of water and energy Gaston Eloundou Essomba on September 5 after a visit to the Akomnyada water station in Mbalmayo in the Centre region.
The unannounced stop at the site, was to examine the reason for the water shortage in Yaounde since the month of July 2022. The town which has approximately 350.000 metre cubes of consumption daily, barely gets the expected 130.000 metre cube to be produced by the Akomnyada water station.
On a daily, denizens have to walk long distances to get water from public taps:
“My children leave the house by 5:45am to fetch water before going to school” a mother speaks.
Officials of Camwater have blamed the inappropriate water supply on the growing population and also the degrading nature of the water station built in the 1980s. Renovation works were done by two American firms in 2017 but supply is still far below demand.
Adding to the eight day deadline, an inter-ministerial meeting has been announced for September 12 to look into the issue.
This is not the first time Yaounde is faced with water crisis. In 2017, the government launched a water project in river Sanaga to add to that of Mbalmayo with a 300.000 metre cube production daily. Six years after, the project with a 78% execution rate pends completion.
