Mozambique: No water at Commercial Institute, so parents open borehole – AIM

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: No water at Commercial Institute, so parents open borehole – AIM

10:50 CAT | 16 Jul 2024

Photo: O País

The Maputo Commercial Institute (ICM), one of the largest professional education institutions in Mozambique, with about 1,000 pupils, has delayed the start of the second half of the school year because it has no water, reports the independent television station, STV.

The ICM is one of many schools in the city where there is no drinking water for pupils, and no decent sanitary conditions. The Maputo Regional Water Company disconnected the ICM over a year ago for non-payment of water bills. The situation has become so bad, that the start of classes, initially scheduled for 15 July, has been postponed.

To solve the problem parents and guardians are collecting money, not to pay off the water bills, but to open a borehole on the ICM premises.

“They suspended the classes, and we stayed at home”, said one student, who asked not to be identified. “We didn’t have any water to drink, and only dirty water came out of the taps”.

It will cost 380,000 meticais (about 6,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate) to open a borehole, and so far the parents and guardians have collected 182,000 meticais.

This initiative comes from the parents, rather than from the institution itself. The agreed contribution is 500 meticais per student, but there are cases where parents are paying more.

The contributions are voluntary, and no students will be prevented from attending classes merely because their parents cannot afford to contribute to the borehole.

The monthly water bill for the ICM from the Maputo Regional Water Company is about 100,000 meticais.

Source: AIM