Water shortage rocks Maputo

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Water shortage rocks Maputo

3:11 CAT | 15 Feb 2017

O País

Residents of some Maputo neighbourhoods say switching suppliers doesn’t work, and that for them the search for water has become a real journey. A journey of all, young and old alike. People who were used to having water spouting out of their taps every day have now not had that privilege for three weeks.

“Every day I wake up at three o’clock in the morning to try to get water, and still I cannot get anything. Nothing comes out. The promise of alternative days is not being fulfilled,” is the comlaint of Maria do Céu, 56, who lives in the Aeroporto neighbourhood.

We found her with other residents searching for water at five in the morning, still without enough water to satisfy her family’s basic needs, such as cooking and bathing. Maria waits in a queue to fill a 20-liter drum from a pipe in the street connected to an Águas da Região de Maputo mains vandalized by the residents.

Near the source where Maria do Céu and other residents are drawing water, another group captures the precious liquid drop by drop from another pipe tapped by the residents, a scenario repeated all over the neighbourhood.

“We know this is not right, but we have no alternative. We need water at least for our children to shower in order to go to school. We need water to drink, to cook. We have no other option. We know it’s not the government’s fault, it’s the lack of rain, but what are we to do?” Maria asks.

Around 6 o’clock in the morning, the water stops reaching the pipes. Young men stop up the pipes and cover the pits. Most of the people who waited for water from the tapped pipes do not obtain water, including Maria.

At this stage, there are two alternatives: to pay four or five meticais for water from the few houses with water still in the taps, or pay two to three meticais for the water from wells.

For lack of time and money, most people resort to the second option. “Every day we get water from here. We use it for drinking, cooking and washing, and as you can see, near here is a ditch. We got up to get water from the tap, but it did not come,” says Mércia, another Aeroporto resident.

And anybody drawing water from the well also needs patience because, due to demand, the well is frequently exhausted, and people must wait for it to fill up again.

Source: O País