Water Stoppages Burden Women in Outlying Parts of Bamenda, Cameroon

BAMENDA, CAMEROON – Adah Mbah, a high school teacher in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s Northwest region, is preparing to go to work. While combing her hair, she walks quickly around the house.

She then walks to a corner of her compound, picks up three empty plastic one-gallon containers and puts them in the trunk of her car.

“There is never a day I leave my house without containers in the boot of my car,” she says. “I carry water from my husband’s office, from my friends’ houses, from my school, from the market, from burst roadside pipes. I carry water from anyplace that I see water.”

Ever since Mbah and her husband bought a plot of land and built a house on Foncha Street, an upscale neighborhood in Bamenda, two years ago, the family has experienced water shortages for weeks – or even months – at a time.

When the family is lucky, water flows three times in a week – but only from midnight to about 5 a.m. Mbah and her children have to wake up and store it in containers. When Mbah obtains water from the streets, she must boil it before her family can use it.

The lack of a reliable water source has added a heavy layer of chores to Mbah’s responsibilities as a working mother, she says. She fears her health will start to fail from a lack of rest.

“I do not have a double day like every other woman,” she says. “I think I have been having a triple day. When I take care of my home, go to work, look for water everywhere, and then get up in the middle of the night to check whether water is flowing – and if it is flowing, I stay up till morning filling the containers – isn’t that even more than a triple day?”

Water stoppages burden women in parts of Bamenda. Because they are responsible for all household duties that require water, such as cooking and cleaning, women are more affected by the stoppages than men. Officials blame the stoppages on population growth and an inadequate water supply system. The government has begun implementing plans to improve water delivery in Bamenda.

The city’s water infrastructure, which was installed 40 years ago, is not able to supply water to all of the clients served by Camerounaise des Eaux, the agency responsible for supplying water throughout Cameroon.

About 200 clients in areas of Bamenda – including the adjoining neighborhoods of Nkwen, Ntambesi, Foncha Street, Mulang and Mile 6 Mankon – are experiencing water problems, says David Baleba, the Northwest regional director of CDE.

Bamenda’s water pipes, which are 350 millimeters in diameter, are insufficient to serve the city’s current population, says Emmanuel Moki, the Northwest regional delegate for the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy. Designed to carry water to 10,000 clients, the system now serves 15,000.

“These pipes are now too small to carry the present high population of Bamenda,” Baleba says.

Some areas of Bamenda depend on community water projects that are unrelated to CDE.

Bamenda’s population has increased rapidly since the University of Bamenda was founded in 2010, Moki says. With the university came infrastructure development and an influx of students, lecturers, business people and public servants.

As of 2012, Bamenda had a population of about 567,000, says Miranda Mih, an official working with the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development. That’s an increase of 81 percent from the 313,000 people recorded in the 1987 census, the first population count in Cameroon.

Water shortages have intensified in the last four years, Baleba says.

Houses built at low altitudes or close to the original pumping station receive water consistently, he says. Areas at high altitudes and on the outskirts of the city, such as Foncha Street, experience service disruptions because pushing water long distances or uphill strains the system. Those areas should be getting water for six hours a day.

Clients pay 293 Central African francs (56 cents) per 1,000 liters (264 gallons) of water and are billed monthly, Baleba says. Even during water shortages, clients are billed according to the amount of water they use.

Emmanuella Tatah, a mother of three who lives in the Ntambesi neighborhood of Bamenda, is fed up with the stoppages.

“If anyone knows about a vacant house in some other part of the town where water is not a problem, please let me know,” she says. “I am ready to quit this part of the town at any time.”

Life has been difficult throughout the three years she has lived in Ntambesi, Tatah says.

In her part of town, water flows from midnight to 4 a.m. most of the time. Tatah wakes up around 1 a.m. to fill her containers, and as a result has developed self-induced insomnia, she says.

“I usually sit by my kitchen sink and doze off periodically, if I can, sometimes with my newborn baby on my back, on nights when water is flowing,” Tatah says.

When the water doesn’t flow, she has to buy water the next morning. Water costs 25 francs (5 cents) per 10 liters (2.6 gallons). Buying and transporting enough water to last the family two days costs Tatah 1,000 francs ($1.90).

Rainwater is a boon, she says.

“When the clouds start gathering, I pray to God to allow rain to fall until all my containers are filled,” Tatah says. “Joy comes in my household when it is raining.”

Some people have moved to gain consistent access to water.

In June, electrician Richard Kum relocated 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from Ntambesi, settling in Metta Quarters in central Bamenda, to end his wife’s suffering.

The family sometimes went without tap water for two months at a time, leaving Kum’s wife to obtain water elsewhere, he says. Kum did not feel the effects of the water stoppages himself.

“Inasmuch as there was [a] water crisis in Ntambesi, I was not very much affected because my wife always made sure that there was water in the house,” he says.

Kum says women are more affected by the water stoppages than men because they shoulder responsibility for cooking and cleaning.

“Going in search of water was a regular activity of my wife,” he says. “Sometimes I really pitied her, but the nature of my work didn’t permit me to help her. “

The water stoppages have not affected residents of some parts of Bamenda.

Cecile Amougou, who lives in Metta Quarters, says the only water stoppages she has experienced since she moved into her home in August 2012 have been required for Camerounaise des Eaux maintenance projects.

“When my tap is not flowing, I know CDE is doing some pipe repair work around the premises, and that is it,” says Amougou, a student at Catholic University of Cameroon.

The stoppages last no longer than 10 minutes, she says.

Baleba says Camerounaise des Eaux is doing everything possible to provide water to all Bamenda households.

In April, the agency built a pumping station to supply water to the Foncha Street and Ntambesi areas. The station, which operates from 8 p.m. to 2 p.m. every day, has relieved the water crisis for 50 clients, he says.

The company also rations water, shifting service from one area to another for up to a day at a time, Baleba says.

A more comprehensive solution is coming.

The Cameroon government has contracted a Chinese company to upgrade Bamenda’s water pipes, Baleba says. All the small pipes in the city will be replaced with bigger ones to ensure that everyone in the city has an adequate supply of water.

The work began in September and should be complete by 2016, he says. Baleba did not disclose the cost of the project.

Mbah hopes the project will end the water stoppages that plague her household.

“I can’t wait!” she says.