Monday 25 August 2008

They don't drink Um Bongo in the Congo


Contrary to the wildly popular 90s advert, the "sunny, funny one they call Um Bongo" remains unavailable. The fruits may grow there, but one crucial ingredient - namely clean drinking water - is unavailable to most Congolese. Despite living on the banks of the world's second largest river, which discharges 41,800 cubic metres of water every second, over half of the 62 million people living in the DRC have no access to a single glass of drinkable water.

Kinshasa, for example, is home to almost eight million people but has no central sewerage system. Steven Lauwerier, who works for UNICEF in the DRC, argues that "Mainly the causes (of diseases in the DRC) are water quality."