MORE than 400000 residents of Cotonou drink polluted water in Benin’s business capital, according to an official in the ministry of health, Dr Moussa Yarou. Yarou, who heads the public health and sanitation unit, told reporters last week that refuse from households and septic tanks had infiltrated all the wells in Cotonou. He expressed concern that more than half of the population of Cotonou were drinking polluted water from these wells. More than 350000 metric tonnes of wastes are produced each year in Cotonou, most of which is buried into the subsoil where it rots and pollutes underground water.