The prefecture of Mayotte has alerted residents, who only have water two days out of three, of a slight increase in their consumption while the water resources of this Indian Ocean territory have reached “a alarming and critical level. “The rainy season has not started and the department is entering the most critical period of the crisis,” recalled the prefecture in a press release released Thursday evening, noting that “over the last week consumption increased from 26,000 m3 to 27,700 m3 per day.
However, “this increase could precipitate the emptying of hillside water reservoirs”, which represent the majority of the island’s water supply, the same source explains. The exhaustion of the reserves of these two storage facilities, currently only 6% full, “could be imminent”. The light rains of recent weeks have not made it possible to preserve them and “the weather outlook is not favourable”, state services argue. The prefecture warns that “due to lack of sufficient resources”, emptying the reservoirs “would require restricting access to water on the network”.
Lack of investment in infrastructure
The French archipelago of 310,000 inhabitants, which is experiencing a historic water shortage – linked to an exceptional drought as well as a lack of investment and infrastructure – has already deprived its inhabitants of running water two days out of three since the beginning september. In this context of “high vulnerability”, the prefecture is asking the population to further reduce their consumption, to avoid another turn of the screw. “Maintaining water towers two days out of three in the coming days depends on our collective capacity to continue efforts to restrict uses,” it is specified. “Each liter saved allows us to postpone the end date. »
In Mayotte, the needs of the population are estimated at 43,000 m3 per day. In recent months, consumption has already decreased considerably to reach 26,000 m3 per day on average. But when the two hill reservoirs are empty, the territory will only be able to produce 20,000 m3 and the supply difficulties in the south will be significant.