A day ahead of the opening of the 106th Congress of French Mayors and Presidents of Inter-municipalities, the Palais des Congrès hosted the meeting of elected representatives from France’s overseas territories. At the heart of the concerns of many Polynesian mayors was the issue of drinking water.
Several hundred of them came to take part in the debates and to share their difficulties and the crises affecting the overseas territories. Drinking water in particular. Woullingson Raufaure, the mayor of Maupiti, doesn’t mince his words about the situation of Polynesian communes:
Out of 48 communes, only 10 are able to supply drinking water to their populations. We’re still a long way off. And why is that? Because of a lack of funding and public works. Small communes like ours don’t have enough money for the general municipal budget, so we need help from the state.
