Water shortages in Gisenyi

Well, aren't you all glad you're not out here visiting me and on an excusrion to Gisenyi! Gisenyi is the border town with Goma and the D R Congo, and is on the edge of Lake Kivu. Right now we are having very heavy rain every single day. Lake Kivu is one of the great African Rift Valley lakes and an absolutely vast body of water. Yet somehow Gisenyi has a severe public water shortage. The taps have been dry for days all over town. So people are reduced to trekking down to the lake shore to fill their jerry cans. As a result there's a red alert for cholera in the town...

How can we have severe water shortages at the close of the rainy season and when we're next to one of the biggest lumps of fresh water in Africa?

Don't worry; we're all steering clear of Gisenyi for the next few weeks....