Title: BURUNDI: CLEAN WATER FOR BETTER HEALTH
Date & location: Gatumba and Rumunge, Burundi 6-8 November 2006
Sound: Natural
Duration: 13'28''
Produced and realized by: Nicole Engelbrecht
Source: ICRC – Access all

For broadcast tapes and information on footage: Virginie Louis, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva,

For broadcast tapes and information on footage: Nicole Engelbrecht, Regional Media Delegate, ICRC Nairobi: +(245) 722- 51 27 28

Shows:

Gatumba, Burundi (6-7 November 2006)

00:23 Children singing at Gatumba Primary School, Gatumba, Burundi
01:02 School principal talking to the children

01:14 (Soundbite – 48") (French), Pontien Butoyi, school principal saying

" Normalement auparavant l’eau sortait d’ici mais compte tenu que l’eau était utile pour la population environnante et pour l’école également alors et aussi que la crise qui a secoué notre pays normalement l’eau a été abîmée, pour le moment l’eau ne fonctionne pas, alors les enfants pour se servir d’eau ils vont dans leur maisons pour faire le nettoyage dans les classes. "

01:53 (Soundbite: 11") (French), Jeanne d'Arc Irakiza, school girl, saying

" Les enfants ne peuvent pas prendre de l'eau. Dans les toilettes il n’y a pas de l’eau. Quand nous faisons le nettoyage des toilettes nous amenons de l’eau des puits à la maison pour faire le nettoyage des toilettes. "

02:05 Water fountain in Gatumba, the only one running 24 hours
02:09 Jerry cans and people standing in line to fetch water
02:19 Woman cleaning and filling bucket
02.24 Shot of field / play ground in front of primary school, administration offices to the left
02:34 District Commissioner leaving his office

02:37 (Soundbite: 96") (French), Prosper Banzamba, District Commissioner saying

" Depuis ça fait longtemps que la population souffre par cette calamité de manque d’eau. Ça a été poussé par quoi. Avant les évènements de 1993 il y avait une population de 12.000 mais pour le moment nous avons une population qui arrive à 40.000. Lors des évènements la population de toutes les provinces de Burundi s’est réfugiée ici chez nous parce qu’il y avait du calme. C’est pourquoi il avait cette densité qui s’est augmenté en abondance. "

03:33 Kiosk in Gatumba town
03:37 Women selling bread
03:41 Various of people in town

03:53 Various of children playing and swimming in near by Ruzizi river
04:24 Various of women fetching water
04.42 Various of women carrying basins and jerry cans to their homes
04:54 ICRC water engineer talking to District Commissioner and local area chief
05:03 Close up of ICRC water engineer

05:09 (Soundbite: 16") (French) Corrado Generelli, ICRC water engineer, responsible for water and habitat projects in Burundi, saying

" Il suffit déjà de voir la couleur, c’est une eau qui est quand même absolument impropre à la consommation, il y a de la boue certainement mais il y a aussi des germes, des agents qui sont pas du tout bon pour la santé."

05:26 (Soundbite: 10") (Kirundi) Joseph Nshimirimana, local area chief saying

" Tous le monde sais que l’eau n’est pas bonne, il y a beaucoup de saleté, des fois il y a des cadavres, des chiens et des personnes, beaucoup d’animaux."

05:36 Various of women with baby waiting in Gatumba health centre
05:49 Vaccination sign
05:52 Various of nurse weighing baby
06:10 Various of nurse vaccinating baby


06:26 (Soundbite: 36") (French) Gloriose Bizimana, nurse, saying

" A chaque fois que le malade va à la selle, a chaque fois qu’il vomit il a toujours besoins de se laver les mains, d'eau, nettoyer le matériel qu’ils utilisent, l’agent de soins a aussi besoin de se laver les mains quand il vient de toucher ses malades ou quand il est en train d’utiliser l’un ou l’autre matériel, et ça vaux aussi pour le centre de santé. "

07:02 ICRC car approaching construction site in Gatumba
07:27 ICRC water engineer and colleague climbing up construction site
07:39 Various of ICRC engineer on top of the roof

07:56 (Soundbite: 59") (French) Corrado Generelli, ICRC water engineer, saying

"Ces deux forages qui vont jusqu'en profondeur de 60 mètres, on va installer dedans des pompes qui vont faire 80 mètres cube par heure. A partir de ces deux forages on va remplir la bâche qui se trouve ici, c'est une bâche en béton armé de 150 mètres cube, elle va servir de réservoir, l'eau sera stockée ici et ensuite on peut partir vers la station de pompage. La station de pompage est déjà presque terminée. Les équipements on les déjà reçus à Bujumbura. Ici on va installer les deux pompes de refoulement qui vont prendre de l'eau depuis la bâche depuis la bâche ils vont la refouler dans la conduite que la REGIDESO est en train de poser maintenant."

08:55 Various of workers digging canal
09:10 Water reservoir with ICRC car approaching
09:15 Various of workers on reservoir
09:38 Shots of rain fall


Rumonge, Burundi (7-8 November 2006)


09:50 Wide shot of town of Rumonge, Burundi
10:00 Various of Lake Tanganyika
10:09 Woman washing clothes in lake
10:29 Various of water reservoir
10:39 Various of pumping station
10:53 Inauguration sign
10:56 Various of pump
11:24 ICRC car next to building
11:29 Various of electricity lines
11:36 ICRC engineer talking to colleague

11:49 (Soundbite: 30" ) (French) Corrado Generelli, ICRC water engineer, saying

"Disons que le CICR au moment de l’inauguration des ouvrages il laisse la responsabilité de la gestion à la REGIDESO. La REGIDESO et l’organe responsable de la gestion de toute l’eau, production et distribution dans les villes de Burundi et on estime que la REGIDESO soit en mesure de gérer ça et le CICR a aussi pensé a faire des formations pour le personnel liés aussi entre autre a l’entretien de la pompe."

12:19 Water fountain in Rumonge, people fetching water

12:36 (Soundbite: 32" ) (French) Venant Birorimana, resident of the neighbourhood, saying

"La différence est que avant tout le monde se rendait au lac pour se baigner, pour puiser, sans oublier que Rumonge a toujours connu des épidémies de choléra depuis 1978, ça fait vraiment trop de temps que la population souffrait d’un manque d’eau potable. Vraiment pour la population de Rumonge ça sera, moi je dirait vraiment, il s’agit d’un grand cadeau, un cadeau inoubliable."

13:09 Various of woman and children drinking from the tap

13:28 END


Story:

The mood is positive in Burundi, since the last active rebel group signed a ceasefire agreement with the government in September 2006. Stability appears to be within reach after 13 years of a violent conflict between the dominant Tutsi minority and the Hutu majority that claimed over 300.000 lives. The country now faces the tasks of forging national unity, reviving a shattered economy and providing the population with basic services.

Like in many developing countries, one of the biggest challenges is the lack of drinking water. The only tap at this primary school in Gatumba, 10 km north of the capital Bujumbura has been out of service for many years.

"The water used to come out here", remembers the school principal Pontien Butoyi. "It served the school and the houses in the neighbourhood. However, during the crisis that shook up our country the tap was destroyed. It does not work anymore and the children have to bring water from home in order to clean the class rooms."

"The children don't have any water to drink", adds this eleven year old girl. And in the toilets, there is no water either. Whenever we clean them, we have to bring water from the wells at home."

For most children and their mothers fetching water means walking long distances and standing in line at one of the few fountains available. The entire city of Gatumba with an estimated population of 40.000 people has only one fountain that functions around the clock. A few others provide water in the late evening hours. The authorities attribute the lack of water in the distribution system to the rapid growth of the population since the outbreak of the conflict in 1993.

"The town has been suffering from this calamity of a lack of water for a long time", explains the District Commissioner Prosper Banzamba. "Before the events of '93 we had a population of 12.000 people, now we are close to 40.000. People fled the conflict from all provinces in Burundi and came here because it was peaceful. That is why we have such a dense population today."

Most urban centres in Burundi like Gatumba attracted a large number of displaced persons as well as refugees from the neighbouring Congo, a country also ravaged by a civil war. The country's infrastructure, including drinking water and sanitation facilities, deteriorated to a significant extent during the long period of conflict. Access to drinking water declined from 70% in 1993 to less than 45% in 2006.

The only solution for many families is the nearby Ruzizi River, a permanent source of water. The river originates in Rwanda and runs through Burundi to Lake Tanganyika. In spite of the obvious health risks, women use the water for cooking and consumption. However, even boiling this water does not make it drinkable, explains Corrado Generelli, a water engineer from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"It is enough to look at the colour. This water is absolutely unfit for consumption. There is certainly mud in it but also germs and other agents that are not at all good for the health."

"Everybody knows that the water is not good", says the local area chief. "It is very dirty, sometimes we find cadavers in it, animal cadavers or even human cadavers."

The only public health centre of Gatumba informs people about the risk they are taking, when drinking the water from rivers and lakes. Diseases like typhoid, cholera and dysentery are among the possible consequences. Unclean water is the second biggest killer of children under five years after Pneumonia, claiming almost two million lives annually. According to UNICEF more than 400 children die every day of water-borne diseases, or three children per minute. One out of five deaths (20 percent) in Burundi is caused by water-borne disease or poor sanitation. Avoiding epidemics is a major challenge, as even the centre itself does not have running water. Tabs are no longer functioning. Patients have to bring their own water when admitted to the centre, says Nurse Gloriose Bizimana.

"Every time a patient defecates or vomits he needs to wash his hands and we need water to wash the materiel we used. The nurses and doctors have to wash their hands after touching such a patient and before they use any other equipment, the whole centre needs water."

As a humanitarian organisation that protects and assists people in conflict areas the ICRC has been present in Burundi since 1999. Its assistance programmes include efforts to improve access to water and sanitation facilities. In Gatumba the organization rehabilitates the water supply system. That includes the drilling of two boreholes, the construction of a pumping station and a storage tank. Over 20 tap stands will be repaired and a pipe will be laid. The ICRC expects the work to be finished during the first semester of 2007. The entire population of Gatumba will have access to drinkable water.

Corrado Generelli, ICRC water engineer and responsible for the water and habitat projects in the Burundi, explains the construction site:

"Those two boreholes over there will go as deep as 60 meters. We will install pumps in both of them that will pump 80 cubic metres of water per hour. From there, this tank out of reinforced concrete will be filled, it serves as reservoir. From here, we can go to the pumping station. This pumping station is almost finished. We already received all the necessary materiel for it in Bujumbura. Here we will install two more pumps that will take the water from the tank and reverse it into the pipeline that the REGIDESO is building right now."

The REGIDESO is the public water and electricity company responsible for the production and distribution of water in all urban centres of Burundi. Its workers implement the ICRC project. Digging the 1-meter deep canal for the pipeline is not a difficult task they say. Most of the ground is sand.

The pipeline will be about 4 kilometres long and leads to the water tank that can store up to 240 cubic meters of water.

The lack of potable water seems to be ironic in Burundi, a country that receives more average rainfall per year than England and shares Africa's longest and the world's second deepest lake with the neighbouring countries Congo, Tanzania and Zambia: Lake Tanganyika. However, capacities to harvest the rainwater do not exist and the water from the lake is as unfit for consumption as the water in the River Ruzizi.

Here in Rumonge, a town of 50.000 inhabitants in the province of Bururi, hardly anybody uses the lake water for consumption. Only on rare occasions, women living close by do their laundry in the lake. The town has an alternative. The ICRC reconstructed and rehabilitated the water supply system providing enough drinking water for the entire population. Since the facilities were inaugurated by Burundi's President on October 28, 2006 the available drinking water increased times ten: From 5 litres per person per day to almost 50 litres per person per day.

The ICRC cited similar water facilities in other cities in Burundi. In 2006 alone, the organisation ensured access to safe water for over 100.000 people in both urban and rural areas.

The reconstruction in Rumonge took over two years. To maintain the provision system public commitment is needed. Like in other towns the ICRC therefore collaborates with the water and electricity company, explains Corrado Generelli, ICRC water engineer.

"The day of the inauguration the ICRC handed the responsibility for the management over to the REGIDESO. The REGIDESO is the institution responsible for the production and distribution of the water in all the towns of Burundi. We reckon that the REGIDESO is able to handle the management. The ICRC also organizes trainings for the staff that takes care of the maintenance of the pump."

15 taps function all over town. Fetching water for the entire family is no longer a tiresome task says this resident of the neighbourhood:

"The difference is that before this project everybody went to the lake to bath and to fetch drinking water. And we should not forget that Rumonge has always had cholera epidemics since 1978. The population really suffered for a long time from a lack of drinking water. For the population of this town it is really a big present, I would say an unforgettable present."

More than a billion people today lack clean water. The people of Rumonge are no longer among them.


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