- Title: Coronavirus curfew creates water shortage for Burkina Faso's poorest
- Date: 10th April 2020
- Summary: OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO (RECENT) (REUTERS) RAHINATOU DIASSO, 37-YEAR OLD SEAMSTRESS, CARRYING HER DAUGHTER ON HER BACK PUTTING TWO SMALL EMPTY JERRY CANS ON THE BACK OF HER BICYCLE TO FETCH WATER DIASSO WALKING WITH HER CHILDREN IN THE STREET DIASSO ARRIVES AT THE WATER TOWER SURROUNDED BY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE AND JERRY CANS EMPTY JERRY CANS AS PEOPLE QUEUE TO GET WATER PEOPLE QUEUING AT THE WATER TOWER AND JERRY CANS LINED UP DIASSO TAKES HER JERRY CANS FROM THE BICYCLE AND SITS THEM ON THE FLOOR AT END OF A LONG LINE (SOUNDBITE) (Moree) RAHINATOU DIASSO, 37-YEAR OLD SEAMSTRESS WHO HAS COME TO COLLECT WATER SAYING: "When you bring the jerry cans you have to wait until the next day to get water or even the day after that" QUEUE OF PEOPLE, MAINLY WOMEN WITH JERRY CANS SITTING AND WAITING (SOUNDBITE) (Moree) RAHINATOU DIASSO, 37-YEAR OLD SEAMSTRESS WHO HAS COME TO COLLECT WATER SAYING: "Really this curfew is a problem and it doesn't help us at all. We don't have water to drink. We would take the water at night and now we can't anymore and during the day, we can't get water either." WATER GOING INTO A JERRY CAN FROM THE WATER TOWER YOUNG WOMAN LOOKING ANOTHER WOMAN LOOKING AND WAITING IN LINE WATER IN A JERRY CAN CONTAINERS AND JERRY CANS AT THE WATER TOWER DIASSO SURROUNDED BY HER FOUR CHILDREN PAYING A WOMAN FOR A CONTAINER OF WATER (SOUNDBITE) (Moree) KONFE FATI, WATER-SELLER SAYING: "Before you could get water from the other water towers and that helped me. But they closed all the water towers and as a result there isnt' enough any more. You can only find it here in this water tower and in another tower and there are a lot of people here. The off-grid zone is full. There is not enough water. And now, when we get up in the morning we do nothing else, we just look for water." DIASSO ENTERING HOME WITH A CONTAINER OF WATER HOSE CHILD NO DIASSO'S BACK DIASSO PUTTING WATER INTO LARGE JARS WITH THE HOSE FROM THE CONTAINER WATER OUT OF THE HOSE INTO THE JAR (SOUNDBITE) (Moree) RAHINATOU DIASSO, 37-YEAR OLD SEAMSTRESS SAYING: "When we do the dishes we use less water. When we do the washing we calculate. we can't stop drinking but for everything else, we reduce the amount of water we use. Before we could wash and do whatever we needed to with the water." DIASSO DRINKING WATER DIASSO CLEANING A JAR (SOUNDBITE) (Moree) RAHINATOU DIASSO, 37-YEAR OLD SEAMSTRESS SAYING: "They said that with the illness (COVID-19) we need to wash our hands, be clean, clean our clothes to stop getting sick. But if there is no water? We want to but it's hard. And if you don't have 600 or 750 francs to get water, you can't wash your hands." PADLOCK COMING OFF A PUBLIC NEIGHBOURHOOD WELL THAT RESIDENTS NORMALLY USE AT NIGHT TO GET THEIR SUPPLY OF WATER AT THIS TIME OF YEAR DENIS MOYENGA WHO MANAGES THE PUBLIC WELL LOOKING INSIDE TAPE COMING OFF THE WELL WHICH IS SEALED (SOUNDBITE) (Moree) DENIS MOYENGA, NEIGHBOURHOOD WELL MANAGER, SAYING: "The water shortage is hard for residents. You know, two months is not two days. All there is is a water tower over there and the women who are there are suffering because there is no water" VARIOUS OF DIASSO SOWING LATER THAN USUAL BECAUSE OF THE WAIT FOR WATER
- Embargoed: 24th April 2020 11:16
- Keywords: COVID-19 coronavirus curfew long queues for water soaring cost of water water shortage
- Location: OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO
- City: OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO
- Country: Burkina Faso
- Topics: Human-Led Feature,Human-Led Stories
- Reuters ID: LVA001C8WQJBR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Nowadays Rahinatou Diasso scolds her children when they wash with too much water. It has become a precious resource since Burkina Faso's coronavirus curfew stopped those in poor areas from accessing communal fountains that only flow at night in the dry season.
As a result, families like Diasso's ration water and jostle in line to fill empty jerry-cans from privately-owned water towers during the day even as the Burkinabe authorities urge them to take extra precautions and avoid crowds to curb the fastest rate of coronavirus infection in West AfricA.
"You have to wait until the next day to get water or even the day after that," she says after putting down her two small yellow jerry cans at the end of a snaking line of plastic containers waiting to be filled. "This curfew is a problem and it doesn't help us at all. We don't have water to drink. We would take the water at night and now we can't anymore and during the day, we can't get water either," adds the 37-year-old mother-of-three at her home in the outskirts of the capital Ouagadougou, where houses are not connected to the power or water grid.
The epidemic has so far infected over 440 people in Burkina Faso, including six government ministers, and killed 24. The country, one of the region's poorest, was already grappling with a deadly insurgency before the coronavirus struck, with 840,000 people displaced in the last 16 months by conflict and drought.
Burkina confirmed its first coronavirus case in early March just as it was entering the sweltering dry season when water supplies can be limited. In Diasso's neighbourhood, this meant communal fountains only flowed after dark.
"Before you could get water from the other water towers and that helped me. But they closed all the water towers and as a result there isnt' enough any more. You can only find it here in this water tower and in another tower and there are a lot of people here. The off-grid zone is full. There is not enough water. And now, when we get up in the morning we do nothing else, we just look for water," Diasso said.
Freelance water-sellers are on hand to help. For a fee they fill larger containers with water and hand it over immediately or deliver for a extra fee.
If she waits in line Diasso can buy 40 litres of water with her two small jerry cans for 25 francs (CFA) (less than a US dollar).
To save time she buys a 200 litre container for 600 francs (1 US dollar). For a home delivery the cost can shoot up to 1,000 francs (1.65 US dollars).
Although this represents a 500 franc profit for the water seller, because of the curfew, the shortage and the long queues even they don't manage to sell more than two containers a day when previously business was a lot more brisk.
Back home Diasso is rationing her water usage to reduce the amount of time she spends at the tower. She says that when the children use too much water to wash themselves she will scold them telling them there won't be enough to drink.
But she worries that this will affect the family's health.
"They said that with the illness (COVID-19) we need to wash our hands, be clean, clean our clothes to stop getting sick. But if there is no water? We want to but it's hard. And if you don't have 600 or 750 francs to get water, you can't wash your hands," said Diasso.
"You know, two months is not two days," says the man who manages the public well, Denis Moyenga, "the women are suffering because there is no water"
It also means Diasso starts work on her sowing machine three hours later than usual cutting into her meagre resources.
According to the head of the local water authority, Irene Nikiemathe, low water pressure and over-population are part of the problem, she said , adding that she had alerted her superiors. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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