In Blangoua, access to water has become an endless, exhausting wait
In Blangoua, the influx of displaced families has made access to water increasingly difficult. Under the heat, women and children wait in long queues, yellow jerrycans in hand, amid a growing humanitarian emergency.
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Monique arrives, pulling her old rickshaw laden with jerrycans. She stops. “All these people again!” she sighs.
For several days now, the site has been taking in new families who have fled the insecurity in Darack. The shelters, which were already cramped, have been hastily expanded. With these new arrivals, the population has surged dramatically, and the strain on the scarce infrastructure available is becoming increasingly severe and critical. The water points, which previously provided limited access to drinking water, are no longer able to meet the demand.
At least thirty people are waiting in front of Monique. Some have sat down on their water bottles. Others stand motionless, conserving their energy under the blazing sun. Each refill seems to take an age.
Further on, near the petrol pump, a man is trying to organise the queue.
“One basin per family to start with. We’ll see about the rest later; everyone must have a little to begin with,” he shouts.
The sun is rising. The heat is becoming stifling. In the midst of the Ramadan fast, the wait weighs even more heavily on their weakened bodies. The children are getting restless; some are crying. The mothers try to calm them down, whilst holding on to the places they have worked so hard to secure.
Amidst these difficulties, a spirit of solidarity endures. Yakoura, a 17-year-old girl, is holding her neighbour’s place with her basin. Another woman standing nearby is rocking a child that is not her own.
“Here, despite everything, we share,” she said
However, this solidarity is not enough to make up for the shortfalls. As part of the emergency response, UNICEF, with support from the CERF fund, rehabilitated water points and latrines at this site in 2024 and 2025 to meet the needs of the first displaced people. But the recent arrival of new waves of people has upset this fragile balance. Today, these facilities are woefully inadequate.
