When it rains in Kinshasa, it pours, and life is disrupted to a degree that visitors can find bemusing. Nearly everyone is late for work, all sorts of plans are cancelled or postponed by a few hours, and the only explanation provided is la pluie.
Getting wet is the least of people’s concerns: nobody likes getting their shoes muddy, but going out in the rain is dangerous as well. As the roads flood, deep potholes are hidden from view, and some roads become impassable to normal traffic. Some areas are even vulnerable to landslides. But the strongest argument for not venturing out when the streets are flooded is that to do so can mean risking death by electrocution.
The photo above was taken beside the road in a relatively smart area of Kinshasa (you can tell by the nice grass verge). It’s a mains electricity cable which has been tampered with and left exposed. As reported recently on Congo Blog and France 24′s Les Observateurs, the same startling sight can be found all over the city, after improvised repairs, illegal hookups and theft of cables. It’s well known that these things kill people with grim regularity, but the national electricity company (SNEL) is nowhere close to keeping up with the problem.
I visited my local SNEL office and mentioned the cable pictured above (which is on a public street). They said they could send a technician to take a look, and after that if I wanted I could pay them to make it safe. They wouldn’t be drawn on how much would be required, but somewhere between $20 and $50 seems likely as an opening bid.
