The State has chartered a ship loaded with 600,000 liters of drinking water bound for Mayotte, where a serious episode of drought has imposed very strict water rationing, the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas announced on Saturday. The population has only had access to water one day in three since September 4.
A container ship of the CGA-CGM group, which transports cargo free of charge, left Reunion Island during the night of Friday to Saturday and is expected to arrive at the French archipelago in the Indian Ocean on September 20, the ministry reported in a statement. release.
Mayotte, France’s poorest department, is suffering its worst drought since 1997, while its supply depends heavily on rainwater.
The increasingly frequent rainfall deficit is aggravated by the lack of infrastructure and investment in a territory that, pressured by illegal immigration from neighboring Comoros, is experiencing population growth of 4% annually.
An emergency plan announced at the beginning of September
For several months, water has been distributed in drops to its approximately 300,000 inhabitants, according to an INSEE count as of January 1, 2022.
Visiting Mayotte at the beginning of the month, the minister responsible for Foreign Affairs, Philippe Vigier, announced an emergency plan to avoid a health crisis in the Mayotte archipelago.
The first shipment of drinking water sent to Mayotte must be distributed as a priority among the most vulnerable population: babies, pregnant women, people with disabilities or those affected by long-term illnesses and those over 65 years of age, according to the ministry.
A week ago, a hundred people demonstrated in Mamoudzou to denounce the almost daily water cuts they have suffered since the beginning of September.
Source: BFM TV
