The Ministry of Energy and Water Resources and other stake-holders are currently in the process of rehabilitating the Mefou river water source as a way of addressing the increasing demand for water in the Yaounde metropolis. This important site was closed down several years ago because of all the new opportunities that the huge Akomnyada project offered and which peremptorily seemed to have all that was needed to address the city’s water problems. But all that it offered in terms of daily water supply was quickly outmatched by the exponential growth in the city population, annulling, in the process all the good intentions and ambitions of Akomnyada.

But like the biblical rejected stone, the Mefou river is proving to be an essential piece in the Yaounde water puzzle and a veritable cornerstone in the effort to address the most pressing needs in the city while other big projects such as the one to tap waters from the Sanaga river see the light of day. The current work has an important contribution in containing growing demand but even after the job is completed, only a negligible quantity will be added to the present-day demand for water. Yaoundeans have been particularly inventive in their way of adapting to new situations and difficulties created by water scarcity, with many going as far as getting water in drums sent in from other parts of the country by relatives or friends. Many have had to buy bottled drinking water which they use for a bath or for cooking in emergency situations. But for most of the city’s population, it has been a nightmare because, with ambient poverty, the many who cannot buy, make do with water from just about any source. This is giving the water problem a new and very delicate dimension because of the threat of a possible epidemic in the likes of what was observed in the northern regions of the country and also in the Littoral and Centre regions some two years ago. The public authorities fought hard to stave off cholera epidemics; but the present build-up conjures a grisly picture for the weeks and months ahead if adequate preventive measures are not put in place to ensure that the quality of drinking water is not only guaranteed, but that access by the impoverished people found in the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder is also ensured. It is absolutely necessary to keep these water-borne diseases, a veritable poor man’s burden, at bay.