The Mama Mobutu Cité and its surroundings, including the Matshotsho neighborhood in the Mont Ngafula commune, have been without REGIDESO water for some time. The population, with no other options, wonders if their neighborhood has been forgotten by this public company.

A few days ago, a tanker truck was seen driving through the streets of this neighborhood, selling water to certain households.

As for the others, to get water, they are forced to turn to private boreholes, which are proliferating in this neighborhood.

Otherwise, those who have vehicles leave with jerry cans to fetch water along the way.

At the boreholes, to get a 20 or 25-liter jerry can, one must have 200 FC for the purchase and 500 FC for transportation. The cost of transport varies with the journey.

Large families use at least ten jerry cans per day. This makes for a daily expense of 7,000 FC. Each month, at least more than 200,000 FC must be spent just for water when the monthly REGIDESO bill per household does not exceed 50,000 FC. This disrupts the budget of many households, especially those with small incomes.

According to a resident of this neighborhood, this situation has existed since the launch of the first module of the recently constructed Ozone neighborhood water treatment plant in the Ngaliema commune.

What I don't understand, he lamented, is the fact that this neighborhood did not depend on this plant but on the Lukaya plant located in Kimwenza. But, it’s unprecedented. It feels like this new plant has added to the existing water supply problems, but not in the way we know now. We are experiencing more than a tragedy, if not a nightmare, concerning water supply in Mama Mobutu.

In their speeches, various stakeholders during the inauguration ceremony of the first module of the Ngaliema plant had stated that with the construction of this infrastructure, several neighborhoods including Cité Verte and Mama Mobutu Cité would no longer have water problems.

Boni Tsala