This problem is in addition to those concerning supply, which causes water cuts twice a week for more than a month on the French Indian Ocean Island.
Le Monde with AFP
The consumption of tap water has been discouraged for children under 4 in northeastern Mayotte, due to an excess of manganese, announced on Saturday 20 November the Mahora of Water Society (SMAE ) The area concerned is home to 120,000 inhabitants, nearly half of the official Mahora population.
The subsidiary of VINCI, responsible for the food and distribution of drinking water, explained in a statement that the water was in excess of manganese from the withholding of dzoumogne, one of the main water resources in Mayotte. However, downstream, the drinking water treatment plant of Bouyouni is not equipped with a manganese treatment device.
Water cuts from 17 hours to 7 am
The incident adds to recurring water supply problems in the overseas department. For more than a month, Mahorais are confronted with “water towers”: water cuts occur twice a week, according to a rotation organized by village , from 5 pm to 7 am, because of the weakness of the level of the groundwater, rivers, drilling, so that malfunctions at the Pamandzi Sea Water Desalination Plant.
The obsolescence of the pipeline network is also pointed. In 2016 and 2017, Mayotte had already experienced a water crisis with cuts that had lasted more than three months due to the drought and early season of late rains. In addition, according to an INSEE survey, one third of the inhabitants of the island do not have access to running water.
A Water Mayotte emergency plan had been adopted by the government in 2017, which provided for the interconnection of the two deductions of dzoumogne and combani, the enhancement of the retainer of Combani, the construction of a desalination plant in Greater Earth and 5.5 million euros of investment for the Intercommunal Water and Sanitation Union of Mayotte (SEAM).
If much of the work has been completed, the third restraint, scheduled twenty years ago, has still not been built, while the CEAM, become the mixed water and sanitation union of Mayotte (SCEAM), is in financial difficulty. The situation had alerted the Regional Accounts Chamber in its latest report, while an investigation by the National Financial Office was opened.