2023-11-03 16:07:18
It took more than a week following Hurricane Tammy hit on October 21 for water to be consumed everywhere once more. Things were even anticipated: the weather phenomenon was not yet in sight of the coasts of the archipelago that the joint water and sanitation management union of Guadeloupe (SMGEAG) recommended to avoid consuming water. water during and following bad weather. At the same time, the regional health agency (ARS) recommended the procedure to follow in the event of « coloration » water or ” If in doubt “ : boil the water for five minutes and let it cool before consuming it.
And it is this recommendation, hammered out by the Minister for Overseas Affairs, Philippe Vigier, during his visit to the territory on Monday October 23, which raised the tension a notch. “Heat the water and put it in the fridge”he advised on the set of the local channel Guadeloupe la 1reduring an interview, triggering, on the spot, ironic reactions from the inhabitants of the island but also the ire of local elected officials, in particular parliamentarians. “Condescending and disconnected advice”for the deputy Christian Baptiste (Socialist Party, PS), ” an insult “ for the deputy Olivier Serva (Libertés, independents, overseas and territories) and remarks “classifiable in the lexical field of ignominy (…) more than contemptuous of our populations”for MP Elie Califer (PS).
Because, in Guadeloupe, the question of drinking water is recurrent, even chronic, and most of the time, bad weather has nothing to do with it. Taking the press releases from the body responsible for managing water on site, we can count, from July to the end of October, ten alerts for non-compliance of water for human consumption, and therefore as many bans or restriction of consumption, sometimes lasting several weeks. Too much aluminum, lack of chlorination, turbidity due to bad weather or worse, presence of coliform bacteria (E. Coli).
A complaint filed
In the archipelago, many families have stopped drinking tap water, preferring to buy dozens of packs of water, necessary in any case to compensate for the cuts. “Tap water is difficult to trust because its potability can change overnight”, explains Sabrina Cajoly, activist for the defense of the right to access to water on the archipelago, who went to bring the voice of users before the United Nations (UN), which has already urged the France to resolve the water issue in Guadeloupe. A complaint, bringing together at least a hundred people, was also filed in February to assert a “crime of exposing another to an immediate risk of death”.
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