Mayotte emergency: a French department devastated by cyclone Chido

Two questions to Cédric Berthod, Water, Hygiene, and Sanitation Coordinator in Mayotte for SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL 

What is SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL doing in Mayotte since the passage of the cyclone? 

We are trying to avoid a health catastrophe by providing access to clean drinking water as quickly as possible to residents of informal settlements, which were heavily damaged by cyclone Chido.  

On the one hand, we are providing better quality water by working on water sources. For this, we are coordinating with the Red Cross, MSF (Doctors Without Borders), and local associations. 

On the other hand, we are distributing chlorine disinfection tablets so that this water can be consumed without the risk of bacterial contamination. Providing household water treatment devices in a french department is quite exceptional.  

Finally, we are distributing hygiene products and water storage devices, both collective (tanks) and individual (jerry cans, buckets).  

In two weeks, we have been able to supply water to several thousand families in three major shantytowns. But there are still many areas left to cover. 

Why did you chose this modality of action ? 

Access to drinking water was already a serious issue before the cyclone. People connected to the water network were already experiencing cuts very often, and nearly 30% of the population – the residents of the slums – had no access to safe water. These people were already resorting to potentially dangerous practices, such as using surface water for their daily needs. 

Cyclone Chido worsened the situation, to the point that the only way to find water for the residents of the slums would now be to climb up to the higher areas of the island. However, most people cannot carry 40 kilos of water over a long distance and rocky, slippery path. 

We therefore fear that people will consume poor-quality water and become ill. Our colleagues from MSF informed us that one out of every two consultations in their mobile clinics is related to the lack of water.  

Multiplying points of access to good-quality water for the residents of the slums is therefore the only way to prevent epidemics.  

Mayotte after the cyclone: the water crisis becomes a disaster 

On December 14th, the tropical cyclone Chido hit Mayotte. The NGO SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL, which has been present on the island since the water crisis of 2022, is working alongside the inhabitants of Mayotte’s precarious neighborhoods to provide them with drinking water and access to basic hygiene.  

The slums that housed more than 100,000 people before December 14 have been razed by the cyclone. The island’s sanitary situation has severely worsened since then. Many inhabitants are living among the litter and ruins, while aid is slow to reach them. 

In Mamoudzou, rubbish and remnants of homes swept away by the cyclone still litter the ground. Some people are searching through the rubble to find materials they could use to rebuild their destroyed homes. 

Families on the island are struggling to find clean water for washing, drinking, or cooking. Stagnant water or water from streams running through the hillside slums is used, for lack of a better option, to wash dishes. 

In addition to the immediate need for shelter, there is a critical need for drinking water, hygiene and sanitation, increasing the risk of water-borne diseases. In most shelter centers, sanitary facilities are unusable, forcing people to relieve themselves in the open air. 

The health risks, particularly of epidemics, are very high. SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL teams have already observed flu-like symptoms in the vast majority of children. 

In the slum of Kerson, still completely devastated by the cyclone, life is slowly resuming despite the disaster. Relief efforts are struggling to reach these villages located in the highlands of the archipelago. SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL stands with the residents, providing them with clean water. 

SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL teams are delivering water in the Kaweni slum through pipes connected to a reservoir located on a hill. While this water is not safe to drink without treatment, the system will allow residents to use it daily for washing, doing dishes, or laundry. 

SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL has distributed nearly 1,000 hygiene kits in precarious neighborhoods of Mamoudzou and the north of the island. 10 water points have also been rehabilitated, providing access to water for 5,800 people.

Distributed by our team, this little tablet called Aquatabs makes water drinkable by eliminating the micro-organisms it contains. Water purified this way can be consumed for up to three days. After the devastating Chido cyclone, Mayotte’s inhabitants are short of everything, especially drinking water, which was already a rare commodity in the archipelago in recent years. December 25, 2024. Koungou, Mayotte.

The SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL team connects new sanitary water points in one of Mayotte’s largest shantytowns, devastated by cyclone Chido 12 days earlier. The inhabitants, already destitute before the cyclone hit, complain about the lack of help in their neighborhood. December 25, 2024. Koungou, Mayotte.

Alongside its community partners, the SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL team is delivering and distributing soap and water disinfection and potabilization solutions to a shantytown in Mayotte, 12 days after the devastating passage of cyclone Chido. Bringing help is made very difficult by the presence of a lot of vegetation and rubble on the access roads. December 25, 2024. Koungou, Mayotte. 

Inhabitants of one of Mayotte’s largest shantytowns store water in shanties. Since cyclone Chido hit the archipelago, the population has been short of everything, especially drinking water, a rare commodity on this Indian Ocean Island in recent years. December 25, 2024. Koungou, Mayotte.

Two inhabitants of a large shantytown in the north of Mayotte use stagnant water to wash their clothes. Since Chido cyclone devastated the Indian Ocean archipelago, the population has lacked everything, especially access to running water. The natural disaster that hit the island 12 days ago has worsened an already extremely precarious health situation. December 25, 2024. Koungou, Mayotte

December 23, 2024

More than a week after Mayotte was struck by devastating Cyclone Chido, many of the inhabitants of the shantytowns where we were operating remain unaccounted for. Our field coordinator, Anthony Bulteau, warns that the state of health on the island is deteriorating by the day, and that it is extremely difficult to deliver emergency supplies.

We will never know if every person SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL was providing support to has managed to stay alive. The team did insist, through its community relays, that everyone should seek refuge in a shelter center. The people who had been sleeping under a mango tree in Tsoundzou were finally persuaded to do so and are unharmed. The same goes for the people who were living in the particularly precarious accommodations of a slumlord – the latter being made of corrugated tin sheets installed on the roof of a building. As for the shantytowns, we still don’t know whether the inhabitants were able to find shelter. The emergency shelters were supposed to accommodate up to 10,000 people. An insufficient number, given that tens of thousands of people were living in precarious housing in Mayotte, the first to be hit by the cyclone. In addition, the fear of being looted or arrested by the police (in the case of undocumented migrants) discouraged many people from seeking shelter. 

The distress in shelter centers

Eight days after the cyclone, children are knocking on doors to ask for water to drink.  Wild animals come into town to feed, rats proliferate and the smell of rot intensifies. People working all day long to rebuild improvised homes among the rubble get injured and their wounds become infected.   

In the four shelter centers assessed by the SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL team, people are hungry, thirsty and sick. Children are weakened and traumatized. Some centers are left to their own devices, with no public officials to care for the people who have taken refuge there. Sanitary facilities have run out of water and become blocked. All these people have no choice but to relieve themselves in the open, sometimes critically close to water points. Waste cannot be collected and piles up.

Water, a vital emergency

With the rainy season just beginning, water-borne and skin-related diseases linked to lack of hygiene are to be feared. Cholera could also re-emerge.   

To cope with the looming health crisis, the needs are immense. The SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL team has launched an emergency phase. We need to provide drinking water and combat insalubrity.  Hygiene kits have been distributed and water storage tanks made available, along with filtering and purification equipment. However, in the absence of equipment, the work is currently severely hampered.   

To increase our capacity for action, we urgently need to bring more equipment to the island. SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL is doing its utmost to get emergency supplies to Réunion Island as quickly as possible: jerry cans, hygiene products, tarpaulins, water packs, as well as pumping and water storage equipment. All that remains is to get this equipment across the last 1,500 kilometers separating the two islands, which are currently the most difficult due to transport restrictions and infrastructure damage.

This extreme weather event hit a French department already facing significant challenges. Chronic water shortages, combined with widespread poverty, have created a worrying health situation. Since 2022, SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL has been supporting the population of informal settlements and asylum seekers on the island by distributing water filters, hygiene products, and, when necessary, chlorine tablets to treat water.  

Five days after the cyclone hit, the full extent of the disaster endured by the people of Mayotte remains unclear. Reports from our teams on the ground are alarming. The island’s many precarious homes have been entirely blown away. The exact number of fatalities or injuries is still unknown. Entire neighborhoods remain cut off from the rest of the island and have yet to receive emergency assistance. While some of the population in informal settlements sought refuge in collective emergency shelters, the situation remains dire. Much of the food was lost during the storm, and hunger is becoming a serious concern. Water service was cut off at the onset of the cyclone. Public water fountains, which supply 30% of Mayotte inhabitants not connected to the water network, are no longer functioning. Now deprived of shelter, water, food, but also of electricity, medical care, and emergency aid, the population faces a looming public health crisis. Indeed, the rainy season in Mayotte is just starting. Stagnant water and mud cover everything. The carcasses of animals further contaminate already polluted surface waters, which many people are forced to use. The lack of drinking water and functional toilets will soon create conditions for the spread of diseases. Our teams are already witnessing cases of skin diseases, abscesses, and fevers among many children. Diarrheal diseases are expected to follow, and cholera remains a significant threat. 

In these circumstances, SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL, after ensuring the safety of its four staff members and dozens of volunteers carrying out its initiatives, immediately mobilized: purified water is being supplied to four emergency shelters, water filters and disinfection solutions are being distributed, and a rainwater collection and treatment system has been installed in the Kavani neighborhood of Mamoudzou. The team is now preparing to adapt and scale up its actions to assist the most vulnerable populations.  

December 16, 2024

Header photo : © Michael Bunel