Water shortage: the residents of three municipalities in Kinshasa urged to be patient

Kinshasa, November 6^th, 2025 (CPA). – The residents of Ngiri-Ngiri, Selembao, and Bumbu, three municipalities facing drinking water shortages in central Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, have been urged, on Thursday, to be patient while waiting for road works to be completed, we have learned on Thursday, from administrative sources. « The drinking water shortage faced by the residents of Ngiri-Ngiri will be resolved when the work to lay the large pipe on Avenue 24 is completed. The old piping that supplied this municipality and other neighbouring ones such as Bumbu and Selembao is already defective. The residents of these three towns will therefore have to wait until the end of the work being done on Avenue du 24 Novembre to connect to Avenue Loya, » has declared Paulin Kienge, honorary director of drinking water distribution in Kinshasa. « In any case, it will boost the supply of drinking water. There will be no more interruptions or shortages. The population will be served 24 hours a day. There is a large pipe that will carry water to Avenue Manifeste in the municipality of Bumbu. We are going to connect the old pipeline to the one currently under construction. It is a large pipe with a diameter of one meter eighty centimetres (1.80 m). It will boost supply to such an extent that we will no longer talk about water shortages in Ngiri-Ngiri, Selembao, or Bumbu, » he has added. In the meantime, the shortage of drinking water continues in these municipalities, particularly in Ngiri-Ngiri, where several households are struggling to obtain supplies.  “This morning, my children left for school without washing because there was no water. Several households are complaining that they no longer have access to running water. This forces us to travel long distances or get up very early to get water from the few water points available,” has lamented Jeanne Landu, a resident of the municipality. «The municipality of Ngiri-Ngiri is one of the areas most affected by recurring water cuts in Kinshasa. Aging infrastructure and lack of maintenance of the distribution network are the causes of these disruptions, exacerbated by high demand in certain densely populated neighbourhoods. » Ms. Jeanne Landu has also warned of deteriorating hygiene conditions. “Children, the elderly, everyone is suffering. We now fear the outbreak of disease due to the lack of water for washing and dishwashing,” she has said. The pipe laying works to facilitate drinking water supply in these three municipalities is expected to be completed in 2024. However, they have been delayed due to the torrential rains that continue to fall on the city of Kinshasa. “But I believe 2026 will be a decisive year for the completion of all these works,” has concluded Mr. Kienge.