Water crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Although the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has Africa's largest freshwater resources, it is suffering from an acute drinking water supply crisis.

As a result of inadequate water supply and sanitation services, many inhabitants are suffering from waterborne diseases, including diarrhoea, typhoid, and cholera.

The abundant water resources in the DRC are linked to the vast forest coverage, which extends over 155.5 million ha.

The quality of surface waters is generally very good, with the exception of localized pollution hotspots in urban centres and near mining operations.

Large-scale water supply from springs through distribution networks is used in many cities, including Beni, Bunia, Lisala, Lubumbashi, Kisangani and Mbuji-Mayi.

Water sector governance in the DRC is structurally weak and characterized by overlapping and conflicting institutional mandates.

[5] As part of the humanitarian and emergency relief efforts during the conflict time span, international and national NGOs established a multitude of water supply service projects in the DRC.

NGOs provide essential water supply services in remote areas neglected by governmental efforts.

However, they are often poorly coordinated and focus on activities that are designed to immediately improve local water supply, but lacking sufficient management structures to maintain the infrastructure in the future.

[2] The lack of safe drinking water and poor sanitary conditions pose a major risk to public health.

[16] REGIDESO's water supply services suffer from the degradation of its infrastructure due to lack of electricity, absence of new investments and maintenance.

[1][5] Years of armed conflict, poor leadership, weak governance, depleted finances mostly due to nonpayment of water bills by the government and non-profitable tariff policy, as well as lagging operational performance of REGIDESO have led to the deteriorated state of urban water supply services.

Over 85 percent of the urban water connections are located in four provinces: Kinshasa, Bas Congo, Katanga and South Kivu.

[5] Furthermore, funding is heavily skewed towards the city of Kinshasa, receiving almost 40 percent of total investments in the urban water sector.

The rural water sector of the DRC has been neglected for many years and is characterized by a deteriorated infrastructure due to lack of maintenance and spare parts.

[5] Current investments in the rural water sector aim at the expansion of borehole drilling and small piped networks in large villages, which each serve between 2,000 and 5,000 people and are managed by autonomous community-based associations and local private firms.

The key concept of the program is the improvement of drinking water quality by tapping springs and installing shallow wells with the help of the local communities.

Water supply scarcity transforms this process into a highly laborious and time-consuming activity, which decreases the amount of time available for education.

The nonexistence of drinking water protection zones results in the exposure of vulnerable source areas to pollution and land degradation.

Modification of runoff patterns, increased erosion and environmental degradation are the consequences of unregulated expansion of inhabited and agricultural areas.

Development of housing, poor road construction, pit latrines, septic tanks, mining operations, and tailings are important contributors to pollution of water sources.

In urban areas, industry, fuel stations, garages, abattoirs and storm water runoff are further sources of contamination.

Biological contamination from sewage and solid waste disposal and increased suspended sediment loads are the two main sources of pollution.

These recommendations are centred around three key aspects: Support of the water sector governance reform, technical and institutional capacity-building and establishing a scientific information base.

In January 2016, the World Bank commissioned a study to characterize levels of poverty in the DRC, including the evaluation of the quality of access to water and sanitation services.