In most cities in developing countries, dwellers continue facing difficulties in adequately accessing potable water in sufficient quantity for their daily needs. These difficulties are perceived by households each time they fetch drinking water or try to get access to potable water for other household activities. This study aims to assess the problem of potable water supply in the Yaounde III Subdivisions’ neighbourhoods and the coping strategies developed by citizens to meet their needs. To achieve this objective, 300 households were selected and investigated based on purposive and systematic random sampling, particularly in the most densely populated neighbourhoods. We proceeded by identifying the different water supply sources of households for their various needs, and assessing the difficulties encountered in getting water and how they overcome them. Results reveal that in Yaounde III Subdivision only 34.33% of the households are supplied by the Cameroon Water Utilities Corporation (CAMWATER), while 65.67% rely on alternative water supply sources (wells, drillings and springs) without any pre-treatment. Among those connected to CAMWATER network, 46.6% do not have a regular water flow. Results also revealed that water sources were located at reasonable distances (less than 1 kilometre) and that 70% of households take less than 30 minutes to fetch water. Failure in water supply is mainly caused by the insufficient pumping capacity of the existing potable water treatment plants which lead to rationing and shortages, but also to rapid population growth and city extension not followed by the extension of the potable water distribution network. To fill the gap in water supply, it is imperative for public authorities to quickly achieve the project on water supply from the Sanaga River. Also, CAMWATER should extend its distribution network and improve its maintenance system.

This work is expository and evaluative in its methodology. It aims at offering a critical assessment of the claims of Gabriel Marcel on Creative Fidelity, in order to ascertain whether or not such claims are philosophically robust, sustainable and realizable, or merely deflationary and idealistic. Gabriel Marcel’s work on Creative Fidelity does not only deal with perennial themes of faith, fidelity and belief, incarnate being and participation, but also discusses religious tolerance and orthodoxy. Creative fidelity refers to the tenacious, constant desire to elaborate who we are. To have a greater sense of being, we need creative fidelity. For Marcel, to exist only as body is to exist problematically. To exist existentially is to exist as a thinking, emotive, being, dependent upon the human creative impulse. He believed that, as soon as there is creation, we are in the realm of being, and also that, there is no sense in using the word ‘being’ except where creation is in view. Thus, we become creatively faithful when we bridge the gap between ourselves and others by making ourselves present to them, and so defy absences with presence. Thus, it is not enough to be constant, since constancy is tenacity towards a specific goal, which requires neither presence nor an openness to change. If the creative élan is a move away from the objectification of humanity, it must be essentially tied relationally to others. Creative fidelity, then, entails a commitment to acts which draw the subject closer to others, and this must be balanced with a proper respect for the self. Self-love, self-satisfaction, complacency, or even self-anger are attitudes which can paralyze one’s existential progress and mitigate against the creative impulse. To be tenacious in the pursuit, the fidelity aspect is the most crucial part of the creative impulse, since creation is a natural outflow of being embodied. The central argument of this work is that “creative fidelity,” as theory, is quite captivating and fascinating, and seemingly realizable in a possible world of altruistic human beings. However, in practice, it seems unattainable or unrealizable, especially in a concrete world that is populated by self-serving, fragmented and broken human beings.