Sandi Blano, 64, has surveyed three stores before finding water bottles in a supermarket in Mamoudzou. “To have it, you have to be strong,” blows the man by placing two packs – the maximum quantity authorized by the store – in his cart.
A few hours later, the five pallets of bottled water which had just been placed in the central aisle are already empty, leaving dozens of customers in disarray. When a new cargo arrives, everyone rushes on it.
More than five weeks after the Cyclone Chido in Mayotte, the drinking water stalls from the French Department of the Indian Ocean remain taken by storm.
However, there is no supply problem, assures AFP a distributor who wishes to remain anonymous. But a combination of problems, between a greater demand due to the absence of water from which a part of the population always suffers, the distrust of the Mahorais for the tap and the deadlines necessary for the arrival of the new orders.
In the meantime, the Mahorais use the D system, starting with word of mouth to know where to find bottles. And they no longer ask themselves any questions.
“As soon as there are, we take it,” sums up Antoy Bacar, 45, in the aisles of the Sodifram supermarket – a local group – of Hauts -Vallons, in the north of the chief town of the department, where a few bottles are still on the shelves.
The director of the establishment, Ramzi Boukhris, acknowledges that it is complicated to meet customer demand since the passage of the Cyclone, who left 39 dead and approximately 2,500 injured, according to a still provisional assessment.
Despite the four to six water pallets he receives daily, sales have tripled, he assures. And as orders usually take three months to arrive at the port of Longoni, the gateway to products imported to Mayotte, “it is normal that what was planned is not enough” currently, he justifies.
According to him, a month will still be necessary before the arrival of the readjusted orders resolves the crisis.
-– “insufficient” distributions –
This rush on the bottles also reflects generalized mistrust towards tap water. Regular cuts make it stagnate in pipes and promote the development of bacteria, to the point that the SMAE – Mohoran of the waters, to which the distribution of water is delegated, regularly recommends boiling it before consumption.
To overcome the crisis, the prefecture, with civil security and the municipalities, organizes distributions of bottles. But they struggle to follow the needs.
In Chirongui, in the south of the island, the Communal Center for Social Action (CCAS) has restricted access to water to vulnerable people: elderly people, pregnant women and disabled people.
If the town of 8,000 inhabitants – gathered in several villages – previously received more than 300 water packs per day, these figures have dropped to less than 70 for two weeks. “It becomes insufficient,” regrets the director of the CCAS, Asmine Insa.
The prefecture, which claimed in mid-January having distributed more than two million liters of water from the cyclone, has not responded to AFP requests but several other municipalities are in this case.
Those who can no longer benefit from distribution are worried. “If there is none in store, everyone is vulnerable,” said Kassime Madi, a resident of Chirongui.
The grocery store located a few steps from home has no water on the shelves. At the Malamani supermarket, the neighboring village, there are only a few small bottles. “You have to be lucky and arrive at the right time,” comments the man, forced to fall back on packs sold for 10 euros in certain businesses, despite the blocking of prices decreed by the government.
