2023-06-24 07:08:10
In Mayotte, since June 12, four times a week, water no longer flows from the tap between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. And, announced the prefecture at the beginning of June, “a fifth night break should be put in place at the end of the school year “, beginning of July. A sixth would even be considered in August.
This will have to force the managers to put more chlorine in the pipes to avoid bacterial risks due to stagnant water. An unprecedented situation that the prefecture explains by “unprecedented drought”. But which also and above all finds its cause in a chronic under-investment in drinking water infrastructures.
Admittedly, explains Floriane Ben Hassen, head of Mayotte’s hydrological watch unit, “this is the second driest year since 1997” due to a combination of unfavorable weather factors this year. This island in the Indian Ocean, whose climate is punctuated by a half-yearly alternation of wet and dry seasons, “came back into the rainy season with an already significant deficit. And then there was really little rain until March”she continues.
A water crisis that dates back to 2016
Thus, the two hill reservoirs developed to provide water reserves began the dry season at 28% filling for the northern one, at Dzoumogne, the largest, and at 47% for the second, at Combani. A level never reached. However, if this weather situation is likely to recur with global warming, it alone cannot explain the current water crisis. This has indeed been going on for years and the first cut imposed to manage the shortage dates from 2016.
While the population quadrupled between 1985 and 2017, and average consumption grew with the rise in the standard of living, needs exploded. “In normal times, we know how to support increases in needs,” says Aude Sturma, environmental sociologist, author of a thesis on water sanitation in Mayotte. “But, for that, it would have been necessary to invest ten years ago and despite the money put in by the State, the projects did not come out of the ground, due to a problem of local governance. »
On an island where 80% of the water consumed comes from surface water and 15% from boreholes, “We have been talking for years about a third hill reservoir which is still not there”, continues Aude Sturma. New drilling is underway. As for the desalination plant, it only produces 5% of the resource, because it only operates at a third of its capacity. A second site is announced in 2024.
A third of the population does not have access to running water
In the meantime, the State had to authorize Mayotte by derogation to import bottled water not only from Reunion, to European standards, but also from Mauritius. In this context, the water crisis is increasingly sensitive. And, while the Wuambushu operation aims to dislodge and expel illegal Comorian migrants, some blame the water shortage on the inhabitants of the tin shacks that have been built all over the territory.
However, if slums complicate land management and therefore the construction of infrastructure, they contribute little to the increase in needs. In Mayotte, a third of the population does not have access to running water. “In the slums, consumption is less than fifteen liters of water per day and per person, which is less than international standards in refugee camps”, explains Anthony Bulteau, coordinator of the NGO Solidarités International. It is also five to six times less than the average consumption of a Mahorais.
Not all shantytowns are covered by the hundred paid standpipes installed on the island. “To access it, you need a card and you can only recharge it in Kaweni, which means you have to take a taxi, which is often inaccessible for these populations”, continues Anthony Bulteau. As a result, many feed in rivers and springs, at the risk of contracting diseases. ” The result, continues Anthony Bulteau, is that Mayotte suffers from a prevalence of cases of typhoid 50 times higher than in mainland France. »
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One in three Mahorais does not have access to running water
Twenty years of improvement. In 1997, 80% of homes did not have running water in Mayotte. Today, this is the case for one inhabitant in three.
A variable situation depending on the type of habitat. 56% of sheet metal houses, which represent four out of ten dwellings, have no running water. But 12% of permanent housing also remains so.
Des solutions d’appoint. Of the 18,300 households that did not have running water in their homes in 2017, 7,900 still had a tap in their yard and 3,700 called on third parties, neighbors or relatives. The others get their water from a standpipe, a well or a river.
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