Asmara water shortages leave residents rationing water

Chronic water shortages in Eritrea's capital, Asmara, have left residents rationing household use and paying for costly tanker deliveries.

Saba, a civil servant whose name was changed for her safety, said her family buys water from tankers with help from relatives abroad but still limits showers, laundry and toilet flushing. “The worst thing is that over time, people take this as normal and do not even complain about it,” she told AFP.

Water shortages occur every dry season in Eritrea, but Saba said their regularity and fear of the authorities mean people endure them.

A study published in July in Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences said “population growth, climate change, poor infrastructure, and ineffective water management make it harder to supply reliable water” in Eritrea. It said water supply is often irregular and unsafe, and that Asmara mostly meets its drinking needs from reservoirs built to store water during rainy seasons.

When fresh water is not available, some residents turn to salt water transported from the Red Sea, about 60 kilometres from the capital. Mebrat, also not her real name, said she regularly buys seawater brought by horse- or mule-driven tankers to the highlands, where Asmara sits 2,300 metres above sea level.

She said a barrel of salt water costs 150 nakfa, or $10. The UN says 58% of Eritrea's population in 2021 lived on less than $3 a day.

Mohamed Kheir Omer, a former activist in Eritrea's independence struggle who is now a researcher in exile, said water shortages had been a persistent problem for years and linked them to a lack of infrastructure investment.

Eritrea is one of the world's most closed-off countries. Isaias Afwerki has been president since independence in 1993, the constitution has been abolished and no elections have been held.