WATER, STATE AND PEASANTRIES: PROBLEMS OF EQUITY IN THE SUPPLY OF WEST CAMEROON VILLAGES WITH DRINKABLE WATER

In Cameroon peasantries, the matter of water supply is so worrying that it is difficult for a sociologist to turn away from it. In the day to day life, women, children and old men face spectacular lack of water. This situation leads to multiple crises (sanitary, agricultural …) which henceforth call on the attention of public forces. In Cameroon, the national network of water’s distribution is essentially urban and doesn’t reach the country sides. In such a context; the problem of water supply in rural areas is mainly solved through the mechanism of “captage” and “forage”. The realization of all these infrastructures sometimes necessitates enormous budget from potential “developer” (Assogba, 2007: 66) which is the State. Now, in an economic crisis context, the Cameroon state enters the scene being incapable to provide all these exorbitant costs of money. The hand is from now forward held out either to western (or European) Governments or to the international Development organizations which are all the more sensible as this hand (of the state) is more often held out at a moment of current serious sanitary crisis which are due to the lack of water. All these actors (State, Non Governmental Organization (NGO), etc.) work together in order to facilitate the access to hydraulic resources to the rural population. However, although they have acquired many local hydraulic projects, the countysides are still insufficiently supplied in potable water.