Polluted waterways and water shortages complicate the fight against Ebola in the DRC

The DRC's 17th Ebola outbreak, declared in Ituri province in May 2026, has become the country's largest and fastest-spreading, with over 5,000 cases and more than 2,400 deaths recorded by August 17. Health authorities recommend frequent handwashing, but in Ndrele and surrounding areas nearly 40,000 people have virtually no access to safe drinking water, forcing children to spend hours each morning fetching it.

Oxfam warns that most health facilities in the hardest-hit areas still lack safe water and sanitation, and advocacy officer Baptiste Filloux says people sometimes use Ebola treatment center facilities to get water, creating transmission risk between sick and healthy people. DRC's health minister has acknowledged profiteering from response funds, fueling public distrust.

Advocates trace part of the contamination problem to unregulated artisanal and semi-industrial gold mining near Mongbwalu, where mercury and cyanide-laced slurry is discharged into rivers feeding Lake Albert. Armed conflict in the region compounds the danger, making the search for water itself a source of violence.

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