Another illustration of system D while Mayotte remains mainly deprived of its drinking water network and the authorities’ bottle distribution operations still remain limited and uncertain. To get supplies, Mahorais turn to the river or the sea.
The rain that fell yesterday afternoon in Petite-Terre and we finally saw families smiling despite the still raw trauma of the passage of Cyclone Chido, children playing happily in the water and adults just as amused, full street.
The opportunity to finally wash properly while the running water is slow to return, and to replenish stocks using basins, bottles or even cans. Drums also visible by the sea where many residents also stock up on supplies.
The departmental councilor Daniel Zaidani himself confided, last night, on the television news set of Mayotte La 1ère that “for the first time in (his) life at 49 years old”, he himself had gone “draw water from the sea for everything that was sanitary“.
It is system D which prevails in this situation of extreme distress. “There, it’s been five days, the reserves have dried up and we no longer have a choice. We need water for the toilets and cleaning, and so we come to the sea to get it“, confides a Mahorais encountered on a beach, opposite the port of Mamoudzou.
However, sea water can be a source of disease-causing bacteria. But there is not really a choice for residents to adapt as best they can. Others head to the rivers to wash their clothes.
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