Residents of Le Gosier, one of the most touristic towns of Guadeloupe, erected during a good part of the day on Monday, dams throughout the city to protest against recurring water cuts, preventing access or exit the town and creating monstrous traffic jams.
"For months we do not have a drop of water in our faucets," said AFP Anny Pheron, one of the spokespersons of the movement, to justify their action. Since late March, in fact, the inhabitants of some districts of Gosier, alert on the non respect of water towers solidarity (program of supply and water cut on the communes guadeloupéennes). "I am obliged to get up between midnight and two o'clock in the morning to check the return of the water to the tap, to fill up my reserves.We are exhausted," says Mrs. Eustache, 62 years old.
"We go back and forth, with buckets, bottles ..."
The inhabitants also tell about the breakdowns of the household appliances, "damn" because of the lack of water. The nursery teachers of the neighborhood, hard hit by shortages, hope for an improvement in September. Meanwhile "we go back and forth, with buckets, bottles, and we respect the standards of hygiene as we can," sighs Eurielle Brosseau, one of them. To raise the roadblocks, the protesters demanded to meet the mayor of the commune "who has the competence" on the management of water, they recall.
At the end of the meeting, they obtained some solutions such as investments in blowers and the reorganization of solidarity water towers, for a more equitable distribution of water. "This is an emergency plan in the emergency plan, but it is not a real way out of crisis," warned Jean-Pierre Dupont, the mayor of Gosier, well aware that feeding a neighborhood, means cut the water in another. After being heard, the users decided to reopen the traffic in the town, where traders, schools and public transport suspended their activity all day long.