In Mayotte, water cuts have punctuated the daily life of the inhabitants, since the severe droughts of 2016, but the rainfall deficit has worsened further this year, pushing the authorities to put in place emergency measures.
This archipelago located north of the Mozambique Channel is very dependent on rainwater: 80% of its supply is provided by two caulinary reservoirs as well as rivers. Groundwater drilling represents only 15% of the resource.
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Or, “It’s been an exceptionally dry year. The water deficit that we are experiencing is the second largest recorded since 1962, just behind that of 1997”says Floriane Ben Hassen, head of the meteorological center of Mayotte.
A significant water deficit
The situation is therefore becoming worrying, because if the water cuts allow “to save 2,000 m³ per day”according to the head of the Météo-France centre, this will not be enough to supply the entire population during the dry season, from May to November.
One of the two main caulinary reservoirs, located in Dzoumogné (north), is only 18% full at this time, when it should be almost full.
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At the end of March, the water deficit was around 33%. And the phenomenon could still be amplified. “We are at the end of the rainy season. The off-season and the start of the dry season should be a little more rainy than usual, but if it doesn’t rain, we will increase the deficit even further.”continues Floriane Ben Hassen.
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Demographic change of 4%
Moreover, “Infrastructure does not follow demographic evolution”, of the order of 4% per year, assures Anchya Bamana, former president of the water and biodiversity committee of Mayotte. Added to this is the pollution of waterways and deforestation.
“The forest promotes the infiltration of water through its root network and allows groundwater to recharge. However, Mayotte loses about 300 hectares of forest each year. Which makes it the most deforested French department”says Michel Charpentier, president of the environmental association Les Naturalistes.
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To supplement its supplies, the island has a desalination plant. A structure that painfully produces 1,300 m³ of water per day, or a third of its capacity, due to a lack of well-sized infrastructure and sufficient water quality.
Measures in place for the most disadvantaged
In this context, the Minister Delegate for Overseas Territories, Jean-François Carenco announced at the end of March that 400 m³ of water would soon be made available for the poorest.
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He also demanded that distributors on the island sell bottles of water at cost, while prices can reach 10 to 12 euros for six bottles. “One of the main distributors – the Carrefour group and its partner brands Sodifram – has undertaken to sell water packs at cost price, by signing the ‘price quality shield'”assures the Prefecture.
And to convey “hundreds of cubic meters of water for free to the entire population”of the “water ramps” should be put in place by the end of April in several districts, according to the same source.
“There is a lack of funding”
The Prefecture also points out that work to detect and repair leaks on the pipes is in progress to “save several thousand cubic meters per day”. Additional bottles of water should also be imported from Mauritius and Reunion and osmosis units, which can desalinate water and make it drinkable, would be on their way to reach the territory.
To increase resources over the long term, the creation of a third caulinary reservoir and a second desalination plant are also planned. But these infrastructures, imagined eight years ago, are still at a standstill.
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“There is a lack of funding, studies and compensation for landowners”assures Soulaimana Bamana, in charge of the Ourovéni caulinary reservoir project, in the west of the island.
In the meantime, work should soon be started to allow the first desalination plant to operate normally.
