Abidjan residents turn to private companies to get water

Some residents In Ivory Coast’s economic capital Abidjan, have no access to drinking water and have turned to private companies.

However, access to water has improved in some areas, but residents only get water between 02:00 and 05:00 in the morning.

Some say they do not have water at home, so they have to use private companies who deliver water to houses. They say It costs around (about 30.5 euros), (38 euros) a month.

“Without the owner of this courtyard’s well, we wouldn’t have water. We often walk to get water from the SCB (a company that grows bananas), that’s where we get the water to drink. There is no water here. It’s difficult. It’s hard to live in this neighbourhood. This is where we come to do laundry. We come to get the water to do everything. We buy drinking water on the other side,” said Gisèle Bilé, a dressmaker.

“We need water for everything. Every time you have to wash your hands, when you do something and then there is no water at home, there is no water in the neighbourhood… It doesn’t feel like we’re in Abidjan anyway, it feels like we live in a camp somewhere,” said Silvie N’Da Affoué, Abidjan resident.

Ivory Coast is expected to have a drinking water treatment plant costing above 108 billion CFA in the future.

The project a result of an agreement between the Ivorian government and American company is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2019 and the construction of the plant two years later, in 2021.