The people of Mutaho, a village on the banks of the Virunga National Park in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, have been suffering from a lack of drinking water for decades.
Farmer Vunmi Mukeshimana: “We go to Kibati, several kilometres from here to buy drinking water.
Surprisingly, banana trees are the source of water par excellence in this village.
Regularly, each resident goes to this field to extract water from the banana trees, which is then consumed without any filtration, to quench thirst or for cooking.
However, the water is the origin of several cases of cholera and diarrhea that have caused many deaths.
