Water Crisis & COVID-19 in Mbengwi, Danger for Women & Girls

Water Crisis & COVID-19 in Mbengwi, Danger for Women & Girls

The phenomenon of dry and empty taps in Mbengwi, chief town of Momo division in the North West region of Cameroon is nothing new. Users used to cope with the situation but following the global outbreak of COVID-19 with at least four cases already reported in the municipality plus one death, a woman, the current absence of pipe borne water for weeks now poses a great threat most especially to women and girls. 

Broken Pipe that resulted to the water crisis

Water, according to medical sources effectively prevents COVID-19 when used in running mode to wash hands with soap. Now that there's no water, almost all tap buckets installed at strategic locations by the council, the government, village development associations and other organisations are empty and no one seems to care. With the current crisis, the locals barely yearn for water to drink and care less about hand washing. This poses a great health threat because conditions become favourable for COVID-19 to easily spread. 

Anyang Melanie, resident in Mile 18 Mbengwi is a single mother of one. Recently, she sustained a knee fracture as she slid and fell en route to search water from a nearby quarter. She's now compelled to stay at home for weeks till the fractured knee gets better. At the same time, she has her four year old  son to cater for. If water was flowing from the tap in the compound where she lives, she won't have found herself in such a predicament. 

Njweng Claris, also resident in Mile 18 Mbengwi runs a mobile money kiosk at the Mbon motor park. Asked how she's now coping with the water crisis, she said "It's not easy. At times I spend a day without bathing and this makes me feel uncomfortable especially when in public and hearing that corona is around, I'm so scared." Most restaurants in Mbengwi have continued to operate amidst the water crisis leaving consumers pondering over where these restaurateurs get water from to cook food and serve customers to drink.  

With the absence of pipe borne water for weeks now in the municipality, home users have resorted to other sources like wells, springs, rainfall and rivers who's quality is often doubtful considering that the standardised qualities of good water for drinking are no taste, colour and smell. Women and girls highly need water more than men and boys because they cook, wash dresses, dry clean, bathe the children and for their own personal hygiene considering that they ought to wash themselves at least twice a day. 

The current water crisis in Mbengwi stems from a broken pipe somewhere in Njindom village that transports untreated water from the main source in Guneku village to the treatment centre in Wumngang from where the ready for consumption precious liquid is then sent to households. This is the umpteenth time the pipe is being broken at the very spot and usually by heavy duty trucks that trample on it as it's completely exposed in the middle of the road. 

Those affected are the population of Mbengwi central town because inhabitants in the outskirt villages depend on their community water whose supply is always uninterrupted. The CamWater office in Mbengwi had been shutdown for years now because of the ongoing Anglophone Crisis and so no official could be gotten to comment on the water crisis.