Kinshasa, May 5th, 2025 (CPA)-. Unauthorized construction on the bay of Ngaliema, to the west of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is threatening the drinking water supply to other municipalities in the city, according to a technical note from the water distribution authority (Regideso) received by CPA on Monday. ‘Some occupants are building on the drinking water supply works. It should therefore be remembered that almost all the buildings on Avenue Adama have their boundary walls on the treated water pipe that runs from the Ngaliema plant to the Socimat roundabout, preventing Regideso SA from carrying out maintenance work and/or repairing leaks,’ the memo read. ‘To date, the plant is drawing water from a dead zone with no water flow, and the faecal coliform rate is exaggerated. All this is putting the lives of more than two million people at risk and requires urgent action to clear the occupation of the bay behind the plant and the constructions that are distorting the normal course of the river, thus reducing the plant’s capacity’, the memo added, pointing out that “Already, the depth of the river has gone from more than 12 meters when the catchment was built to less than one meter today, making water catchment work very precarious”.
According to the document, other occupants have built and continue to build on the riverbeds, creating embankments to push back the river’s waters, which have had the effect of preventing water from reaching the raw water catchment at the plant. As part of the work to rehabilitate and increase the plant’s capacity, financed by the Japanese government, a new raw water catchment has been placed 152 meters from the river bank to avoid the harmful effects of this construction.
‘As a result, if nothing is done, there is a great risk that the riverbank will rise to the level of the new catchment, bringing the plant to a standstill’, the same source said, pointing out that such an eventuality would be a disaster for the city, and would even deprive the municipalities of Gombe, Lingwala, Kasa Vubu, Ngiri Ngiri, Bumbu, Selembao, Bandalungwa and Kintambo of water. Regideso SA says it has been operating the plant since 28 June 1960, following the transfer agreement between UTEXLEO, now UTEXAFRICA, and CONGO BELGE.
‘For some time, third parties had been occupying the immediate area of the plant. By occupying the site, these third parties have built at non-regulated distances from watercourses (the Gombe and Makelele rivers) and from our works, as stipulated by Congolese law, namely Law no. 73-021 of July 20th, 1973 on the general property, land and real estate regime and the system of securities, as amended and supplemented by Law no. 80-008 of July 18th, 1980, Law no. 15/026 of December 31st, 2015 on water and Interministerial Order no. 0021 of October 29th, 1993 applying the regulations on easements’, concluded the source. ACP/