By Bakah Derick
Blogger@hilltopvoices
Sponsored by The Greens
According to UN Water statistics, every
week one million people move into cities. Bamenda is no exception. The movement here may not be up to a million but the figures are high. For almost three years now, Bamenda has not known constant water supply. The state owned water cooperation better known by the French acronym SNEC now called CDE or CAMWATER is charged with the distribution of water in the city.
Before 2009, the Bamenda City Council provided water to citizen through public taps for free. In 2010, these public taps were privitised by the City Council with the claim that the bills were to too high and that there were outstanding depts to be settled which the City Council under its new Goverment Delegate Ndumu Vincent Nji was not ready to pay. A few individual bought the taps and began charging every one who came to fetch water. This was heavily criticized across the city.
Following the presence of a community water source in one part of the city (Nkwen), many resulted to fetching water from there not just because it was free but because they argue it was cleaner and safer than the SNEC provided water. Shortly after, those who had bought the privatised taps were unable to manage them for lack of funds some say.
As this problem dragged on, many who could not go to Nkwen now had to turn to those who had private taps, boreholes and wells. Many continued managing like this until November 2014 when things went worst; taps stop flowing forcing every one to turn to Nkwen for survival.
What caused the water shortage and what is government saying or doing about it? Nkwen headquarters of Bamenda III subdivision is one of the fastest growing areas in the city of Bamenda and so too is the growing need for water. Can the Nkwen Water project supply Nkwen and Bamenda as a whole?
As we celebrate #World Water Day #WWD come March 22, 2015 hilltopvoices opens a special series on the Bamenda Water Crisis. We question what government, Development Associations, Nongovernmental Organisations and other structures are doing to reinstated water in Bamenda.
Here is a World Water Day #WWD reflection from #UN water:
Water
is health
Clean
hands can save your life.
Water is essential to human health.
The human body can last weeks without food, but only days without water. Water
is essential to our survival. Regular handwashing, is for example one of the
best ways to remove germs, avoid getting sick, and prevent the spread of germs
to others. Up to one trillion germs can live in one gram of poop.
As for the human body, in average it
is made of 50-65% water. Babies have the highest percentage of water;
newborns are 78% water. Every day, every person needs access to water for
drinking, cooking and personal hygiene. Water is essential for sanitation
facilities that do not compromise health or dignity. The World Health
Organization #WHO recommends 7.5 liters per capita per day will meet the
requirements of most people under most conditions. A higher quantity of about
20 liters per capita per day will take care of basic hygiene needs and basic
food hygiene.
Despite impressive gains made over
the last decade, 748 million people do not have access to an improved source of
drinking water and 2.5 billion do not use an improved sanitation facility.
Investments in water and sanitation services result in substantial economic gains.
The return on investment of attaining universal access to improved sanitation
has been estimated at 5.5 to 1, whereas for universal access of improved
drinking-water sources the ration is estimated to be 2 to 1.To cover every
person worldwide with safe water and sanitation is estimated to cost US$ 107
billion a year over a five-year period.
Project Partners
The Greens