Survival in eastern Chad depends on the struggle for water

"I've already badigned a customer to this drum – I have to move!"

Ali Ahmat, 12, beats his bad to persuade a hard-to-sewn horse to continue with his cart, loaded with 200 liters (44 imperial gallons) of water freshly brought.

The young entrepreneur is one of the informal but essential links in a chain to supply the inhabitants of Ouaddai, in eastern Chad, with water, a vital element of life.

Scorching temperatures, open skies, a shortage of deep wells and a lack of water purification make it part of the thirsty world.

"After the rainy season, water becomes scarce," said Mahamat Adoum Doutoum, chief of the Guerri region, where there are only two deep wells for 86,000 inhabitants. "Then people go get water in the wadi."

Wadis – "river beds" in Arabic – are streams that run fast and strong during the rains and are often dangerous to cross, but dry up for most of the rest of the year. When it does not rain anymore, people dig wells in wadis and install pumps to extract groundwater.

Ali and dozens of other water carriers flock to the pumps to collect supplies that they plan to sell to people who do not have access to the source, often in dusty camps.

Each refill of its 200 liter can costs Ali 100 CFA francs (0.15 euro / 0.17 dollar), but it can sell water five times more in town. "We do between seven and eight round trips every day, pretty much," he says.

Towards the end of a hot Sunday, the scorching sun is lying down and Ali 's cart goes to Hadjer Hadid.

The city is home to a refugee camp for people who have fled conflict and mbad killings in the Darfur region of western Sudan on the other side of the border.

Pascal, a Sudanese refugee and five-year-old father in his fifties, is also used to going back and forth between the city, the bed of oued and the muddy wells.

He first arrived in Chad about fifteen years ago and claims to have "suffered" to buy his own donkey.

The beast of burden was a worthwhile investment, however, allowing Pascal to provide water to the city's residents over the last two years and to bring home a small amount of money to his family.

Add bleach

But he remains concerned about the quality of the water.

"To drink water, you must also add bleach," says Pascal.

While water has become as scarce as precious, the water around the wadis is dangerous. Traditional wells dug into the land at wadis provide water that is often of the same color as the soil.

"The water can be contaminated in different places, either at the source, which may not be protected, during transport, by using inappropriate, dirty or uncovered containers, and during storage and distribution", explains Fabienne Mially, head of mission in Chad for the french aid group Première Urgence Internationale (PUI).

The NGO supports 11 health centers in the Ouaddai region, where awareness sessions on the importance of drinking water are regularly organized.

In Borota, a village several hours away from Hadjer Hadid, the head of the local health center is under no illusions. Of the six standpipes in the village, none of them work anymore.

"They were installed by NGOs," said the head, Koditog Bokbada, who said the wadi water was the only source of water available locally.

It distributes sachets of bleach to dilute in untreated water.

But Bokbada does not have the means to satisfy everyone and PUI has become the only supplier of bleach in the central parts.

The state was delivering some, but had not been doing so for more than a year, he said. It is quite common to see young people in the wadis drinking directly in their cans.

& # 39; Just enough & # 39;

The city has catch basins and water towers designed to hold water during the rainy season.

"But the retention ponds are inadequate and both water towers broke down several years ago," says local resident Hbadan.

A shopkeeper bought two 200-liter barrels each, which he leaves in the yard of his house. "It's barely enough for kids, but it's better than nothing."

The Pascal water delivery man does not have the money to buy a drum of such munificence. For the seven members of his family, there are seven cans of 20 liters on the underside.

"I draw water every day, but I have the same problem as everyone else," he said.