At least fourteen people from Rukaramu area in Mutimbuzi commune of Bujumbura province have contracted cholera since last week. Two people have already died of this disease which is spreading fast due to a serious lack of drinking water in the locality.
Residents of Karamu face severe lack of drinking water
Residents of Kigwati I and Kigwati II of Karamu area have been facing severe lack of drinking water for almost two months.
They use water from the Ntahangwa River. Consequently, fourteen people have caught cholera since the past week .Sources reveal that the disease has already claimed two lives.
Inhabitants of Kigwati I and II believe that the disease will continue to spread since they do not have clean water.
“Here, we do not have access to drinking water. How can we not catch the disease as long as we still use the water from the river?” said a thirty-year old woman who was cleaning the kitchen utensils. She admits that she uses water she fetches from the Mpanda River.
Since the scarcity of drinking water was reported last August, Kigwati residents have learned to cope with the situation. The water they drink is fetched from the tap only between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. “For cooking, washing clothes and utensils, we use water from the river,” says Elisabeth Kangoye, a resident of Kigwati I.
Jean Damascène Nzeyimana, chief of Kigwati I says that the water they used to get was blocked. “Normally, we received water from Rugazi. It would have been blocked to be used in cowsheds of Maramvya area, what caused the water shortage and consequently the outbreak of cholera.
This local administrative authority urges officials of the Burundian company in charge of distributing water and electricity-REGIDESO to solve this problem.
Contacted, the director of the water department promised to react later.
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