Katanga: Lac Upemba and Dubie

In March, while my assistant was busy finishing the project in Kindu, I left for Katanga, my future home base.

Bruce, my local boss, had arranged for a direct introduction to the situation: head straight for the field! Having spent one night in Lubumbashi, I was whisked for a 10 days trip to Lake Upemba. For starters, two days of mud-ploughing 4x4 (which would be fun if I was driving, but local ICRC rules dictate that there is to be a driver!), getting caught-up by malaria, next by boat down the Congo river (very calm and scenic) to a base of Médecins Sans Frontières from which we went across the lake to villages that need help.

Those villages were a sad scene, destroyed and burned houses, only approximately 20 percent of the population remaining, the rest having fled. The military were present in force, fighting the “Maï-Maï” who had ransacked the villages.

Again the objective was to identify what could be done to improve the availability of water: we’ll rehabilate and dig new wells. Cholera (amongst other diseases) is rampant, the field hospital of MSF being quite full with sick people. After a few days there, we took again the long way back to Lubumbashi.

The boat part of the trip was more relaxed the river and lake being calm. No need to mention that small “hotels” on the way were lacking stars… Accommodation, sanitation and food being very, very and I mean very basic…

Barely back, I had arrived Saturday afternoon, Monday morning I was being flown out to Dubie (the ICRC operates 2 planes in RDC), this time with 2 other expatriates (Béatrice & Jutta). Again, lots of displaced people, here “parked” in 3 camps. Luckily the spring and water distribution network presently existing is marginal but OK. Nevertheless we’ll strengthen the present system to eliminate risks of failures and dig additional wells.

For accommodation, they crowded more school children together to vacate 2 classrooms. I felt bad about this set-up, but apparently it was the “best” alternative. I can’t resist to post to pictures of my camp!

After a few days in Lubumbashi, I went back to Kindu to get the last technical details taken care of, before flying home to Switzerland for a short visit to the family.