COTE D IVOIRE: UN says water shortage in Korhogo puts 150,000 at risk

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ABIDJAN, 22 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - The United Nations has reported a water crisis in the rebel-held city of Korhogo in northern Cote d'Ivoire and has warned that 150,000 people could soon be left without safe drinking water.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Korhogo's water supply infrastructure had not been maintained properly since Cote d'Ivoire plunged into civil war in September 2002 and, following poor rains last year, the reservoir which supplies the city was nearly empty.

Water cuts were frequent, with some parts of Korhogo going without piped water for up to three days at a time, OCHA said in its latest situation report on Cote d'Ivoire.

Even when water did flow through the taps, it was dirty and polluted, OCHA said.

“The water shortage problem is mainly due to the fact that the water supply infrastructure has not been maintained since the outbreak of war nearly three years ago,” Ibrahim Barry, a Humanitarian Affairs Officer with OCHA in Cote d'Ivoire, told IRIN.

“It’s not just that people are drinking dirty water and need to know that they must boil or filter it before using it, there’s also the problem that people are consuming more than they would normally as they are not paying for it. And this is making the situation worse,” said Barry.

Since rebel forces occupied the northern half of Cote d'Ivoire in the opening days of the civil war, residents in the rebel zone have not been billed for water, electricity or telephone services.

These are run by companies based in the capital Abidjan in the government-held south.

But with no revenue flowing into their coffers from the rebel zone, these privately managed utilities have undertaken virtually no investment to maintain essential services in the north. As a result, the infrastructure in many areas is starting to break down.

The UN World Health Organisation (WHO) expressed concern on Friday that the water crisis in Korhogo had led to an oubreak of diarhoea in the town.

“There has been a rise in the number of diarrhoeal illness, such as gastro-enteritis, as a direct result of people drinking dirty water,” said Dr Theodore Yao, A WHO official in Abidjan.

“Though we do not have any figures to indicate whether other water-borne diseases such as Guinea worm, are on the rise it is certainly a risk,” he said.

Guinea worm, though not fatal, is a highly debilitating disease. Larvae enters the system by drinking contaminated water. Inside the body, the lavae can develop into worms as long as three feet.

When fully mature, the worm exits the body through a painful blister, usually in the lower limbs. The victim can be left permanently crippled.

Barry said another concern of the humanitarian community was the soaring price of basic foodstuffs in Korhogo following last year's poor harvest in the north of Cote d'Ivoire.

“The water situation is very serious, but also worrying is the high price of maize, the staple food in the area,” he told IRIN.

“A 50-kg sack of maize is this year selling for 12,500 CFA (around US $25) compared to 2,500 CFA ($5) last year,” said Barry.

Rice has also gone up, nearly doubling in price over the last 12 months, he added.

Barry said food shortages in northern Cote d'Ivoire had been aggravated by traders coming in from from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso and even from as far away as Niger to buy up local grain stocks.

He pointed out that last year's harvest in these countries suffered even greater damage from drought and a devastating invasion of locusts.

Last year, the Sahel suffered its worst invasion of desert locusts for 15 years - crops and vegetation were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people along the southern fringes of the Sahara desert now require food aid to avoid famine.

However, the insects are unlikely to return in such devastating numbers this year.

A locust expert at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) told IRIN earlier this week that cold weather in the locusts' winter feeding grounds in North Africa and heavy spraying in Morocco and Algeria, had reduced insect numbers and limited the extent of spring breeding.

[ENDS]