(Pointe-à-Pitre) Some 80,000 people remained without water on Saturday evening in Guadeloupe due to “malicious acts” on the drinking water network of the overseas archipelago, said the prefect of the region Guadeloupe in a press release.
“Of the 130,000 people impacted yesterday, the situation of 50,000 of them was able to be resolved or improved during the day but 80,000 are still impacted this evening,” Saturday, the prefect said in a situation update at 7 p.m. local time (7 p.m. Eastern), published on social network X.
At the request of town halls and the prefecture, 132 pallets of water were distributed on Saturday to people deprived of water, the press release added.
According to the same source, the main breakdown affecting the communes of Abymes, Goyave and Gosier is due to the rupture of the main pipeline “which connects Basse-Terre to Grande-Terre”, a “direct consequence of actions of malice.”
Investigations were opened on Saturday for “aggravated destruction and endangering the lives of others”, the prosecutors of Pointe-à-Pitre and Basse-Terre announced earlier in a joint press release, without specifying the nature of the damage.
Guadeloupe is experiencing, due to decades of harmful management and dilapidated networks, water cuts organized by the operator to supply the municipalities of the archipelago in turn. Since the end of 2021, a single authority has tried to resolve the problems but is experiencing numerous political and financial dysfunctions.