The water from the Water Distribution Authority (REGIDESO) is not running from the taps in the city of Bukavu (South Kivu) for more than a week now, following a breakdown on the company's main pipe. Residents are resorting to the water of Lake Kivu, with several consequences.
The civil society is calling on the provincial government to urgently get involved and resolve the situation.
The REGIDESO taps in the city of Bukavu have been dry for over a week now. Women and children are turning to the water from Lake Kivu, which is unfit for consumption.
Cars and vans are being used to seek water in yellow jerrycans. Pupils and students, civil servants, housewives, and hospitals... are enduring an ordeal.
REGIDESO, in a statement, indicates having experienced a breakdown in its main pipeline that supplies the city. The network is threatened by chaotic constructions over the pipeline.
Jean Chrisostome Kijana, from the New Dynamics of Civil Society (NDSCI), expresses concern over the water shortage that has become permanent in the city of Bukavu:
"Faced with this situation, the New Dynamics of Civil Society invites the provincial governor to take personal involvement in this water crisis by taking urgent measures that are needed, including the uncompromising demolition of all houses built on REGIDESO's installations."
With this lack of water in Bukavu for a week, several drowning cases have been recorded in Lake Kivu among women and children who go to fetch water.
MMC / RO