For some residents of Cameroon’s economic capital it is a routine to get up early and queue outside a brewery to fill their bottles with water.

The public water utility Camwater is not reliable which makes the business of drilling for water a lucrative one. It is good deal for private contractors and the only option for many residents.

“Drinking water sources are extremely rare, it is so rare and not very visible and few neighborhoods have them,” Cédric a computer scientist deplores.

“So, when there is a point like this, everyone rushes. You could already see how difficult it is for people to get it from here. It’s a struggle, the struggle is real. it’s not easy at all. Accessing drinking water in the city of Douala is like a treasure.”

If the government says that Camwater supplies most of housewolds, it is clear that many the demand actually exceeds the supply. In addition to a lack of infrastructure, teh city of Douala continues to spread, worsening the problem of the access to drinking water.

Lack of infrastructure and growing population

“We live in peripheral neighbourhoods and the water is not safe for drinking there,  Jodelle, a housewife says. “

So we’d rather travel to get drinking water here. Access to drinking water is still a problem in our country.”

Private contractors have launched many project for those who can pay. Indeed, drilling cost over 25 times the minimum wage. In the PK12 district near Douala, technicians are busy drilling in search of groundwater.

“Geophysical studies direct the way we select the sites,” Tindo Kaze says.

“We did geophysical studies here, and we were shown a source, we were told a point where we had to drill, that’s where we positioned the machin. They told us we could find groundwater about 50 to 70 meters deep, so that’s what we’re going for.”

Authorities have however warned: drilling works that are not made at the required depths or that have possible points of contamination around present health risks.

President Paul Biya might have got the measure of the issue: in his New Year’s address, he “asked the government” to launch urgently, “starting from 2023”, a “mega-project of drinking water supply” in Douala and its surroundings.

The Chinese government has condemned the killing of nine Chinese nationals at a mining site in the Central African Republic (CAR), where a civil war is raging, and the president of China, Xi Jinping, called on Monday for the perpetrators to be “severely punished”.

Gunmen stormed a Chinese-operated gold mining site that had recently been launched in Central African Republic, killing nine Chinese nationals and wounding two others Sunday, authorities said.

However, the rebel coalition initially blamed by some for the attack put out a statement later in the day. Without providing evidence, it accused Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group of being behind the violence.

The attack early Sunday came just days after gunmen kidnapped three Chinese nationals in the country’s west near the border with Cameroon, prompting President Faustin Archange Touadera to plan a trip to China in a bid to reassure investors.

The assault on the Chimbolo gold mine began around 5 a.m. when the gunmen overpowered the site’s guards and opened fire, said Abel Matipata, mayor of the nearby town of Bambari, located 25 kilometers (16 miles) away. The mining site’s launch had taken place just days earlier, he added.

The bodies of the victims were brought to the capital, Bangui, later Sunday. Local authorities said they were pursuing the assailants, but declined further comment. Residents said that the violence was the latest incident undermining confidence in security forces.

“The government is having difficulty proving its ability to protect Central Africans and foreigners living in the country,” said Ange Morel Gbatangue, a resident of Bambari.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on the Coalition of Patriots for Change, or CPC, which is active in the area and regularly launches attacks on the country’s armed forces. The alliance of rebel groups is aligned with former President Francois Bozize.

Anselme Bangue, who supports the current president’s administration, called the attack on Chinese businessmen an act of “indescribable cowardice.”

“The CPC has not only slowed down the country´s economic momentum, but is now attacking the foundation of development. This is unacceptable,” Bangue said.

However, CPC military spokesman Mamadou Koura said those allegations were false. He claimed without evidence that Russian mercenaries had planned the attack “with the goal of scaring Chinese who have been present long before the Russians settled in this part of the country.”

The shadowy Russian mercenary group was hired by Touadera to provide security and military training, but has been accused by U.N. observers of committing human rights abuses including massacres.

Central African Republic remains one of the poorest countries in the world despite its vast mineral wealth of gold and diamonds among others. A myriad of rebel groups have operated with impunity across the embattled country over the past decade, thwarting mining exploration by foreign companies.

Many of those now operating in the country are Chinese-run and have faced security challenges. In 2020, two Chinese nationals died when local residents led an uprising against a Chinese-operated mine in Sosso Nakombo. And in 2018, three Chinese citizens were killed by angry community members after a local leader died in a boating accident while accompanying Chinese miners to a site.