CNN
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When Racha Mousdikoudine turns on the kitchen tap, she never knows what to expect.
“Maybe I won’t get any water at all,” she told CNN. “Maybe I’ll drink water for 30 minutes. Maybe wait a few hours for water.”
For the past four months, Mudikudin and her two children have had little running water at their home on the French territory of Mayotte, an island in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa between Mozambique and Mayotte between islands, with a population of about 310,000. Madagascar.
Mayotte is facing an unprecedented water crisis, one of the worst droughts in the country’s history, and the effects of the human-caused climate crisis colliding with a chronic lack of investment in water systems.
The island is grappling with its worst drought since 1997. According to the latest estimates, two of the island’s reservoirs have reached “severe levels of decline”, with one reaching 7% capacity and the other reaching 6% capacity. On the verge of drying out.
This has led to drastic cuts in water resources. According to timetables issued by local authorities in the French government, residents will only have access to water for about 18 hours every two days. Many people say what little water they have is often contaminated and undrinkable.
Residents have had to deal with school closures and a growing health crisis, while water bottles have become a rare and expensive item on supermarket shelves.
Despite being 5,000 miles from mainland France, Mayotte is as much a part of France under French law as the suburbs of Paris.
The island became a French colony in 1841 and was officially recognized as a French department in 2011, meaning it has the same legal status as the 96 departments that make up mainland France.
The French government has responded to the crisis. In September, it delivered 600,000 liters of bottled water to the island’s most vulnerable residents and deployed soldiers and civil servants to help distribute the water. The government also suspended water bills for all residents.
But many Mahorai – a term used to refer to people from the island of Mayotte – still feel abandoned.
Douainda Attoumani, 27, is scared of what might happen in the future. She lives in a family of 10, including her parents, sister, four brothers and two cousins. She told CNN that each day was harder than the day before.
She said: “The authorities seem indifferent to our daily suffering and what are we actually going to do when we don’t have water? “We are dying of thirst. ”
Many, like Mudhikudin, are outraged.
“I’m a French woman but I don’t have any autonomy because I don’t have water,” she said. “I had to choose between finding water for my family and going to work. It’s unimaginable to have to make such a decision in a country like France.”
The simple act of bathing or pouring water for their 7- and 9-year-old daughters turned into such a challenge that she and her husband decided to send the children to live with their grandmother on the French territory of Reunion for about two years. An hour flight from Mayotte.
Mudhikuddin said the decision was extremely difficult, but she felt she had no choice.
“Things have gotten to the point where I can no longer keep the kids safe. Cook them proper meals, take care of their hygiene, like going to the toilet, bathing, etc.”
“Things can get out of control at any time.”
Not only is water scarce in Mayotte, but what is available is often polluted.
Online, residents use the hashtag #mayotteASoif (Mayotte is Thirsty) Share a video of the brown, sediment-filled liquid coming out of the tap. Some, including Mudhikudin, took to the streets to protest.
The Mayotte Regional Health Service (ARS) has discovered several incidents of water contamination. ARS general manager Olivier Brahic told CNN that as of mid-October, the proportion of cases of “non-compliant” water was about 3%.
However, many residents believe water quality issues are a larger issue.
Estelle Youssouffa, a member of the French National Assembly for Mayotte, told CNN that authorities were able to say the water was drinkable because they only stopped the flow for several hours. Only then tested.
ARS confirmed to CNN that the test was conducted after 12 hours of operation following a water outage.
Both Mudhikudin and Atumani said that after the flow was cut off, the water started to flow for several hours before becoming clear. But most residents cannot give up water during rationing periods.
As the water crisis continues, health risks also increase. Dr Soumes Abbas, chairman of the Mayotte Hospital Medical Council, said the island is experiencing an epidemic of acute gastroenteritis.
Abbas said gastroenteritis epidemics are not uncommon in the summer, but the epidemic continues into the fall. “Our cases are also getting worse,” he added. “Some cases are more difficult, more complex, and a lot of cases end up in intensive care.”
He said that the cause of the epidemic was both water source pollution and declining water quality. People’s reduced access to water has led to lower hygiene standards, affecting their ability to wash their hands, shower, flush toilets and clean their homes.
“We’re always concerned about the possibility of an outbreak of these waterborne diseases,” Abbas said. “Things could get out of control at any time and we don’t have the personnel to handle it.”
Understaffing at Mayotte hospitals is just one of many infrastructure problems facing the French department.
Mayotte’s population has almost doubled since 2007, but infrastructure improvements have not kept pace, Youssouffa said.
According to the county, the area does not produce enough water even outside of drought periods, and water outages were common on the island long before this year’s unusually low rainfall.
The increased demands of a growing population, coupled with the effects of climate change, are causing droughts to become more frequent and severe, putting tremendous pressure on the island’s water resources.
“Rainfall has been decreasing over the years,” Yusufa said. “We’re already seeing changes in cyclone tracks and rainfall tracks in the region…that’s a direct impact of climate change.”
Negotiations for a third reservoir have been ongoing for years. A second desalination plant to increase Mayotte’s drinking water production capacity. But neither project has yet begun, according to the county.
Mayotte has secured funding to help tackle its dire water situation. In 2014, the European Commission allocated €22 million ($24 million) to Mayotte for water supply as part of a larger funding package.
But in 2021, payments across the entire fund were suspended after an audit found “serious irregularities and deficiencies” in the management of the funds, only to be resumed this year. The county told CNN less than half of the money has been spent on water so far.
The Mahorai people continue to struggle with the financial impact of a dire water crisis.
In July, the French government imposed a price freeze on bottled water, but a pack of six 1.5-liter bottles still costs as much as 12 euros ($13), CNN affiliate BFMTV reported. This puts it out of reach for most people on the island. If only there was bottled water in the first place.
Elsa Leduc, a humanitarian worker who moved to Mayotte from Paris in September, said searching for bottled water has become a daily chore. “Every time I go to the supermarket, there’s no water,” she said. “I have to go to a smaller store where the prices are much more expensive.”
Leduc is lucky that she can afford the high prices, but most people on the island cannot. According to INSEE, 77% of Mayotte residents live below the national poverty line, a figure five times higher than in the rest of France.
“The difficulty with the water crisis is that it makes Mayotte uninhabitable,” Yusofa said. “This crisis is so severe that it disrupts public services. It disrupts studies. It disrupts business. “This is not normal life. ”
Mudhikudin and Atumani, like many Mahorai people, wonder why the authorities were not prepared for this.
“We’ve had small (water) outages since 2018 and we can see it’s not raining,” Atumani said, “so they should have anticipated that and found a solution.”
“The whole system is falling apart before our eyes because it’s shutting down,” Yusofa said. “Without water, you can’t function.”
All hopes are pinned on the rainy season starting in December. But Mudikuddin worries that’s not enough. “I knew things were going to get worse.”