The world is facing a looming global water crisis that threatens to "spiral out of control" as increased demand for water and the intensifying impacts of the climate crisis put huge pressure on water resources, a UN report has warned.
Here in Mayotte, water has been increasingly rationed since 2017. Today we have running water every other day, a bit less than half the time if you count the actual hours. Quite a few people have wells, but far from everyone. There has been an immigration crisis for the past fifteen years too, and the population is officiously estimated to be twice the census (600k vs 300k officially). People are coming in from the nearby islands where there is endemic corruption and France’s development aid (74M€ staggered through several years) only seldom reached the population, as far as retellings of immigrants have taught me it was largely hijacked. Anyway, that should be our clue… but nothing has been made so far, only vague plans about an additional desalination plant… the rainy season, Kashikazi (roughly november to april), becomes less and less wet by the year. It’s not looking good.
Here in Mayotte, water has been increasingly rationed since 2017. Today we have running water every other day, a bit less than half the time if you count the actual hours. Quite a few people have wells, but far from everyone. There has been an immigration crisis for the past fifteen years too, and the population is officiously estimated to be twice the census (600k vs 300k officially). People are coming in from the nearby islands where there is endemic corruption and France’s development aid (74M€ staggered through several years) only seldom reached the population, as far as retellings of immigrants have taught me it was largely hijacked. Anyway, that should be our clue… but nothing has been made so far, only vague plans about an additional desalination plant… the rainy season, Kashikazi (roughly november to april), becomes less and less wet by the year. It’s not looking good.