Sanitary mapping of well waters in the commune of Bimbo in the Central African Republic (CAR)

This study concerns the strategies for controlling and monitoring the quality of well waters consumed by the population of Bimbo, in the Central African Republic. The majority of the population has no access to clean, safe drinking water, and the distribution network of drinking water only reaches around 20 % of the urban population in the town centre. A population explosion in the Central African Republic has led to a very strong rural exodus, which has resulted in increasing consumption of poor quality drinking water. Futhermore, the virtual absence of a system for collecting wastewater only serves to increase the vulnerability of these shallow reservoirs. Such constraints are common in large African cities, where around 80 % of the population live in areas that have become urbanised in an ad hoc fashion. In such contexts, it is extremely difficult to reconcile groundwater extraction with public health.