Buea: In our best days in primary school, we were taught that, for water to be good and drinkable, it must be odorless, tasteless, and colorless. And so was it, as we judged and drank! We were also taught that tap water was treated water, free from germs and contamination, thus better than bush water, and those flowing along the gutters.
Today, one major difficulty in our homes has been the ability to better describe to our own children, what basic qualities distinguish good and drinkable water from its reverse. Tap water today comes in many colors; reddish, brownish, whitish, thickish, muddy, lumpy, crystallized, and in other cases sandwiched with Spyrogyra particles, stones, and human hair, just to name a few.
I have witnessed and suffered from pain, the reckless attitude put up by home based utility companies with the likes of Telecom, Electricity and worst of all, water. Take a critical look at the attached photo. Even the most basic of all, paid for by hard earned currencies of Cameroons taxpayers, one would expect not only enough respect for its consumers and the need for its constant availability, but also, the care, treatment, and the manner in which the company in charge, dedicates itself towards processing and making available pipe borne water to the communities in all its fine qualities.
However, nothing at all looks pathetic as much as the carelessness with which the company handling water and water treatment have become. Sad enough, several Cameroonian households assumed to be living on less than a dollar per day, cannot afford bottled water.
Imagine your white shirt or underwears soaked in this mud. Imagine a pot of rice, beans, or a cup of Gari soaked in this type of water. Now, imagine a shower under this filthy jets crawling down your body? That is how it feels, and I tell you, Cameroonians go through this every now and then.
One reason advanced for this chaos has been in the area of cleaning the tanks. They say, the tank needs to be emptied and properly scrubbed. And that too is very important, however, the fact is that the management doesn’t even bother about informing the communities it serves. They would not tell the locals to not carry water the next day, neither will there be any educative talk on the radio about how best such a situation can be handled until drinking water starts running again.
The community suffers from bad running water or no water again and again. The question is; how do we ensure that these pipes are scrubbed and cleaned so that the supposed “good Water” comes in through? ANY ANSWERS?
Proposals:
- Management should use all means available to inform communities which are supplied by the water catchment or tank if they are under construction or cleaning
- Management should ensure that the water drinking source is guarded every minute of the day to avoid unnecessary contamination.
- Families should stop trusting tap water. As such, before drinking, tap water should be boiled and cooled. This is important, especially for babies.
- Families should allow their taps run as waste water for a while especially after works on the catchment is done. Communities should get into agreement with water billing companies so that during such period when the tap water runs as waste water so as to clear the system which flows with bad water after the catchment activities, families should not be billed.
- Communities should endeavor to provide for themselves water catchments if possible. There should be community development to this especially in Buea which is bless with Mount Cameroon.
- The Government of Paul Biya must do all to provide to the Cameroonian people not only in Buea but across the national territory clean and affordable water. Indeed, government can invest on that rather than on the so called laptops promised University students.
This picture indicates what is happening in Molyko-Buea. It has been so since August 8th till today 11th August. Honestly, I should say, EKEMA is yet to make himself Mayor of Buea, even though the people of Buea supposedly made him so! Else CAMWATER (or what is it even called now), will not deprive a people of life. The Lord Mayor as of urgency must take this up to a no-nonsense level, else consider the next outbreak of a waterborne epidemic straight from BUEA.
God help us all.
By ATEH Thompson
2013 Parliamentary Candidate
Edited and publish by BaretaNews