Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin visits the 101st French department on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th June to provide answers to the structural problems of resource management on the island. Meanwhile, the residents live to the rhythm of water scarcity.
Plastic cans, white jerry cans, basins of all sizes and even metal pots… In front of the well in the small village of Hamouro, in the east of Mayotte, residents queue up to fetch water. Water, Thursday 22 June . In this large slum on the edge of the beach, the Bayard Terminal is the only access point to drinking water for several hundred people. A difficult situation, which has become unbearable since the drought in the 101st French department, has led the authorities to shut off the water four times a week from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. since June 12. As the dry season progresses, that number is expected to rise to five, then six weekly cuts.
A fountain in the village of Hamouro (Mayotte), June 22, 2023. (ROBIN PRUDENT / FRANCEINFO)
“Sometimes there are clashes between young and old fighting over water,” says Atoumani, a mother of four, watching from afar the incessant activity around the fountain. In the courtyard of their banga – the tin houses of the slums of Mahoran – the forties display their collection of bowls of all colors. In his rudimentary kitchen, it’s a large plastic container that holds the precious liquid under a lid. “This water crisis is very difficult for us,” she says, covering her face with M’dzinzano, a beauty mask typical of the island. It is the suffering in our homes when there is no water. With every cut, the kids cry.”
A record rainfall deficit
how did we get here “The last rainy season, from November 2022 to April 2023, has a rainfall deficit of 24%,” explains Floriane Ben Hassen, director of the Mayotte Meteorological Centre. You might think a quarter less isn’t huge, but this season concentrates on 75% of the whole year’s rainfall and such a delay is hard to make up for during the dry season. Especially since the months of May and early June also show a precipitation deficit compared to normal. According to the current forecast, no massive rain is to be expected for the end of June either.
“The 2022-2023 rainy season is the driest since 1997. We are in an extraordinary climatological phenomenon.”
Floriane Ben Hassen, Director of the Mayotte Meteorological Center
at franceinfo
Water levels are collapsing all over the island. In the small village of Hamouro, the two rivers that normally flow through the slum have dried up and are littered with plastic waste. Worse still, the two mountain reservoirs on Grande-Terre are at very worrying levels despite representing 80% of Mayotte’s water resources. The Combani Reserve in the center of the island shows 45.4% infill as of June 20, up from 97.1% a year earlier. Further north, Dzoumogné does not even reach 25% water, according to the latest figures sent by Météo France, compared to 98.5% fill in June 2022.
A dry watercourse littered with litter in Hamouro (Mayotte), June 22, 2023. (ROBIN PRUDENT / FRANCEINFO)
“The reserves are dwindling. However, we will have to make do with these stocks until the next off-season in October… and even until November or December if the rains are really effective,” analyzes Floriane Ben Hassen, who gives the Water Resources Monitoring Committee teams a weekly update on the situation.
A pack of water bottles for 10 euros
The authorities have already announced a series of measures to deal with this water crisis, which one expert describes as “complex and unprecedented”. “Water towers” have been multiplying on the island for several months. At the end of March, Jean-François Carenco, the ministerial delegate responsible for overseas territories, also announced that civilian security forces would be deployed in Mayotte to take care of the poorest and that water packages would be sold at cost, sometimes exceeding 10 euros for six 1 .5 liter bottles during the cuts.
Atoumani in the village of Hamouro (Mayotte), June 22, 2023. (ROBIN PRUDENT / FRANCEINFO)
In the Hamouro slum, buying bottled water, even at cost, is not an option. “If we really run out of water, we ask a child to go to a neighbor, to the higher-up houses that are connected to the grid and can build reserves there,” Atoumani admits bitterly. But they also tell us that sometimes they run out of water and that their bills are expensive…”
“There is bad water management”
It must be said that the water crisis, which is likely to worsen over the months, is not only due to the lack of rain. “This year it’s the winning combination, we have a climate hazard added to the infrastructures that don’t follow,” says one expert on condition of anonymity. An analysis shared by many observers. “It is evident that there is poor water management in Mayotte,” adds Houlam Chamssidine, President of Mayotte Nature Environnement.
The archipelago simply does not have enough drinking water to keep up with the rapidly growing population. In total, the water treatment plants at Grande-Terre and the desalination plant at Petite-Terre produce about 38,000 cubic meters per day, while consumption is 40,000 to 42,000 cubic meters per day, according to estimates shared with AFP.
Several projects that have been under discussion for many years are at best late, at worst stalled. The expansion of the Petite-Terre desalination plant, operated by a Vinci subsidiary, should be operational in the summer of 2022… Ultimately, it won’t be before the end of 2023, according to the prefecture’s forecasts, quoted in a report by the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cese). “We only implement what is jointly decided. There’s not much we can do,” clarified an official from the Société mahoraise des eaux (SMAE), reached by phone, without giving any further explanation.
“A Sea Serpent”
Of even greater concern, two major infrastructure projects don’t appear to be close to completion. The third hill reservoir has been stuck for years acquiring land in Ourovéni in the west of the island, particularly over land belonging to political leaders, notes Mayotte La 1ère. “Everything was ready fifteen years ago! But it has faltered and no one believes in it anymore. It’s a sea serpent,” analyzes Houlam Chamssidine, who also worked at the Mayotte Departmental Council.
Also planned for years, a second seawater desalination plant could see the light of day in Ironi Bé, south of Mamoudzou, in the course of 2024. Despite having a significant environmental impact, this is one of the priority solutions, according to a parliamentarian report published in 2021. “In the case of Mayotte, where there is no mobilized groundwater, the use of seawater desalination is the only technical solution that can keep water constantly independent of the vagaries of the weather can deliver,” write the MEPs.
On the island, many observers also point to the responsibility of the Intercommunal Syndicate of Water and Sanitation of Mayotte (SIEAM) for the lack of infrastructure. “The union’s financial situation is critical due to internal deficiencies in its administration and budgetary decisions,” the State Audit Office warned in a 2020 report. In the face of this crisis, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, is expected to address the issue during his visit to Mayotte on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th June. Hopes are high there. “Every time there is a drought, the politicians promise us that they will change something,” complains a young woman from the Hamouro slum, near the only well in the district. But in the end they do nothing.”