 |
| INHABITANTS OF MILE 3 CUM RAFFIA BUSHES FOR WATER |
|
It has marked exactly five months
that the Bamenda populace and the inhabitants of mile 3 in particular since
October 2014 have continued to struggle with the first ever water crisis that
have plunge the city into a state of total disillusionment and abandonment,
leaving indigenes and students to cumb raffia bushes and marshy areas in search
of water.
The
administrator and pharmacist at the North West Regional special fund for health
promotion, Dr Richard Mbarika fondoh has revealed that there has been a steady
increase in the consumption of medicine from the central medical store of the
region used to cure water bone disease of recent due to the water crisis that
have push the population to consume water from doubtful sources. He said water
fetched from untreated wells with unlearned containers and streams which pass
through the heart of the town wherein people defecate, bath and even empty
septic tanks into it can be vectors of viruses, protozoan’s, typhoid and amoeba
that when consumed or used untreated can result in skin infections, cholera
epidemics and running stomachs, warning that should the situation persist, the
city of Bamenda might be hit by a health pandemic soon. He made the statement
recently as hospitals in Bamenda and health institutions have continue to
receive an ever increasing cases of water bone infections in their institutions
Since
October 2014 a wave of coordinated water cuts and shortages hit the chief town
of the North West Region, Bamenda and took many by surprise. Taps went dry for
weeks, a situation many taught will be rectified soon, but when months after months
went by without any sings of water returning soon, the populace has since then
resulted to unorthodox means of acquiring the precious liquid. Car washing
points have been closed down, Hotels now use service vans to fetch water from
mile four community water authority and some lucky neighborhoods that benefit
from water rationing by the elements of Camerounaise Des Eaux(CDE).The most
affected area is the mile two and three neighbourhoods where locals have not
been lucky like Ntarinkun, Fish pond, Metta Quarters, Musang, Sisia, Small and
Big Mankon, Ndamukong ,Foncha Street, Cow Street and Ghana street to have water
rationed to the by the officials of CDE for close to five months now.
Inhabitants
of Foncha Junction like the St Luis junction and Ntamunche have cried fowl and
mounted pressure to bear on CDE to no avail and are left with no option than to
buy now untreated well water at mile 2
junction and Cow street. To them going to work or the shop these days, they
have to carry along water in bottle and buckets to serve their water system
toilets and to quench their thirst, a situation they have criticize as a
setback to the economic growth of the area and Bamenda as a city. The worst hit is Ntamunche Quarter in mile
3.Here local storm the valleys and raffia bushes to get the precious liquid to
do their cooking, laundry and to drink. Though of doubtful quality, long queues
of people cutting across all age groups engage in the hunt that takes them to
line up as early as 4am and even up to 11pm.According to Joseph Ngong Nsom,an
inhabitant of Ntamunche, he survives the situation by taking along his 20litre
containers to work every day to look for water.”I collect my containers and
those of my neighbor’s very day in my car to work, at times I fetch water at
work but at times the search takes me to mile4, upstation and even GMI.I do not know how long
it will last and I pray it last soon, it’s really ensnaring and precarious.
Inhabitants like John kitu and Manka Nadine say, they blame 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
 |
| MILE 3 RESIDENT FETCHING WATER UP STATION BAMENDA |
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 over hauling and the pipes replaced” they added. To
Ben Song Ayen, an inhabitant of Metta Quarters’, he has to interrupt sleep
daily at midnight to keep watch on his tap to trap a little of the precious
liquid. On her part, Joy Yong, a resident of mile three like Evelyn Ngong of
Banjah street, they 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 hunt. Clementine Musi of Metta Quarters says” I try to sleep but I cant
each night because you have to get up at particular times to carry water at
times late into the night, the Army rescue comes at times to distribute water
and the distance of my house to the distribution point is too far. Only God can
save us from this mess. One can cope without light but one can not cope without
water”.
 |
| WATER HUNT AT NTAMUNCHE |
GENESIS
On July 7th
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 to flow 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 duelers. After
weeks of water cuts and rumors of anticipated corps discovered at the Mendakwe
dam, it took the Regional Director of CDE David Euloge BAlEBA seventeen days to
gather enough courage to clear the air on November17 2014.In a communiqué dated
17th of November 2014,the CDE boss 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 hand and by available springs
and that the production and supply of save drinkable water in Bamenda resumed
progressively since Nov15 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 fetch from swarms and untreated wells bore holes and springs and only
God Knows the resultant effects.
 |
| WATER HUNT |
ATTEMTED REMEDY
Sooner or
later, the misery of the Bamenda people appeared to have attracted the sympathy
of the administration. The Governor of the NWR, ADULF LELE LAFRIQUE CHUFFO
DUBEN chaired a series of meetings aimed at salvaging the situation to no avail
as streems and springs were diverted to the dam as part of frantic efforts
aimed at remedying the situation. A committee was created with the SDO for
Mezam Felix Ngelle Nguelle as chairman in collaboration of CAMWATER and the
ARMY RESCUE with a tedious task of distributing water especially to the most
deprived inhabitants of mile 3 area as well as other 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 visibility studies to
construct water reservoirs in Bamendas 1, 2, 3 and Tubah before 2017 water
crisis will be a forgotten reality”. The prayer in 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 enjoined by Mezam SDO.
 |
| WATER HUNT |
 |
| WATER HUNT |
Comments
Post a Comment