Continued Water Shortages Affect Livelihoods in Goma, DRC

Goma, in the North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is suffering water shortages because its adduction system is reaching its limit. 

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The city is growing, and displaced people fleeing the war are increasing the population. Under these conditions, the population's complaints about the lack of water are growing. 

Dozens of women carry their empty jerry cans to the public fountain in Goma to fetch drinking water for their families. But the wait at the fountain can last several hours.

Angel Chibalonza, a local resident, while waiting at the fountain for water, says, “We don't know if REGIDESO (Water Distribution Company) is waiting for the new government to come out to give us water; we wonder.”

"The sun is strong, and the displaced people have become numerous. There's no water. Look, the water that is here is going to leave (be turned off) soon. We arrive here at 11 pm and leave here at 10 am (after 11 hours of waiting to fill their jerrycans with water). We don't know what we're supposed to do," she adds.

Water agency officials are well aware of the problem in this city of almost a million inhabitants, located on the north shore of Lake Kivu at an altitude of around 1,500 metres.

According to Bin Tele Muhindo Muson, an ICRC employee who inspects water supply works funded by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), “There were complaints from the population, which were registered with the Water Agency (a government agency) and even some that reached us at the ICRC, which led us to evaluate the (water supply) system itself and find a way to resolve them. That is why the ICRC has invested in finding a solution to the water supply problem.”

The ICRC has funded a $1 million construction project to increase the water supply in Goma to find a solution to the water supply problem.

Construction work on Goma's new water supply project began a few weeks ago and should be completed within a few months.