80,000 households get access to drinking water

80,000 households, who are part of the 800,000 people to be supplied with drinking water, have benefited from the project.

Louis Lekegang, a resident of Komkana plateau in Yaoundé, now seem to enjoy life due to the access of drinking water in his neighbourhood.

"For over 20 years we had no water. We did not know we could get drinking water here. You have to buy water two or three kilometers away. We were like forgotten," he explained.

Recently Camwater (Cameroon Water Utilities), proceeded, with funding from the World Bank (WB), the extension of water distribution networks in all districts of the city of Yaoundé. So, things have also changed for the people of Nkolzié. Now they are supplied with drinking water four days a week, according to officials of Camwater.

"Before, it was a misery. We had no water. The distribution network grew here a little more than a year and many could not benefit because prices were huge. But with communal connections, FCFA 35000 or FCFA 40000, you will have water,” said Félix Benoît Kitio, district chief of Nkolzié B, head of the Development Committee.

In fact, the government obtained the financing of the Project Development of urban areas and water supplies from the World Bank. One component of this project involved the production and distribution of drinking water in urban and suburban environments. All regions except the Far North were concerned. An extension of 135 km was carried out in Yaoundé and another 215 km in the secondary centers.

Also, there were 50 000 social connections including 40,000 in grant and 10,000 as a loan between 2010 and 2015. Part of this work was received on Wednesday in Yaoundé during a tour at Camwater. It was an opportunity for CEO, Jean Williams Sollo to say: "We have increased the production of drinking water in Yaoundé for eight months. At the end of the year, we are still going to increase more than 80 000 m3 / day. It is important that there are networks that can receive and distribute the water to people in great need."

In five years, the first phase of expansion of the distribution networks of drinking water in Douala and in the secondary centers covered a linear 135 km including 36 for the city of Douala. The second phase of work concerned Yaoundé, Douala and secondary centers for respective linear of 135 km, 51 km and 79 km. In entirety, the densification of the distribution network and the installation of social connections required funding of about FCFA 7 billion which enabled an increase of around 5% of the service rate.