ENVIRONMENT-GABON: Access to Clean Water Still a Big Problem

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Antoine Lawson

LIBREVILLE, Apr 15 2003 (IPS) - Access to potable water remains a critical problem in both rural Gabon and poorer suburbs of big cities.

Libreville, the capital of oil-rich Gabon, is home to 600,000 people, many of whom live in its poorer suburbs with no access to clean running water.

”To get water from some of the privileged neighbourhoods, we walk several hundred metres and pay 350 CFA (about 58 U.S. cents) for a cubic metre of water, whereas the local water authority charges only 281 CFA (about 46 U.S. cents)," explains a resident from a poor neighbourhood.

According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 80 percent of Gabon’s urban population and 30 percent of its rural dwellers have access to clean water.

Seventy percent of Gabon’s 1.2 million people live in cities, mainly in Libreville.

To improve the water quality, consumers have urged local authorities to overhaul Gabon’s environmental policies.

UNICEF warns that prevalence of endemic diseases, such as bilharzias or diarrhoea, occur with consumption of, or contact with, untreated water.

Francois Ombanda, the chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Gabonese Electricity and Water Company, says the firm ”is investing more than 110 billion CFA (around 184 million U.S. dollars) to rehabilitate water equipment”.

Sylvianne Wora of the Libreville-based Gabonese Association to Improve Child Nourishment, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has urged consumers to ”boil or filter water before drinking”.

Another challenge for the local officials is protecting the water sources and beaches from pollution. Gabon’s shoreline has become a junkyard for garbage that is washed away then carried back onto the beaches.

The sea is also turning into dumpsite for garbage removal firms which do not properly dispose of their trash. As a result, most bodies of water have been polluted by garbage.

In urban areas, where flooding occurs after major rainfalls, water mix with garbage and create a breeding ground for diseases, targeting children.

A number of NGOs, led by the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), say they are concerned about water pollution, which they believe to be one of the worst threats to public health in Gabon. ”The real problem is a lack of civic responsibility. Often consumers dump garbage on the ground instead of in designated places,” laments Nang Nzue, a schoolteacher in Libreville.

A recent study by the Ministry of Public Health and Population found that only about 50 percent of households dispose of their garbage properly.

”We’re educating people about how to treat their water,” explains Lucien Mba, a health official. Without enough qualified personnel and financial resources, health officials are unable to adequately monitor the quality of the country’s water supplies. They know that ”people in poor suburbs do their dishes, wash their laundry, and take baths near water supply points”.

As well as, the pumping and transporting of crude oil also pose threat to lakes and streams.

”Environmental experts admit that a huge amount of extracted oil ends up spilled into the ocean, which for Gabon means about 18,000 tonnes of crude per year,” says Patrice Ngouanga of Shell Gabon.

Some small-scale oil spills have been reported along the ocean, says Stephane Mounguenza of Eau Pour La Vie, a non-governmental organisation.

”Thanks to pressure from environmental groups, Shell Gabon cleaned up the Vevey Lagoon in 1997 at a cost of several billion CFA. The lagoon served as an oil dumpsite for 30 years,” according to a resident of Gamba, where Shell Gabon has its headquarters.