Government Urged To Prioritize Water Supply
The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Network (WASH-NET), a Non-Governmental Organization promoting water, sanitation and hygiene-related issues in the country, has described water as a tool demanding effective change.
According to the organization, the change must be felt in communities, work places, the business sector, governance and other private sector establishments in the country, especially at a time when the country has just concluded the conduct of peaceful and credible elections.
The organization adds that a lot of provincial communities, especially Port Loko District, are currently undergoing serious water shortage as most of them depend on slum, hand pump water wells, streams and locally purified water.
During a fact finding tour in Port Loko recently, in collaboration with WASH-NET, it was discovered that access to safe drinking water in the dry season when the wells dry up is difficult if not impossible as 50 – 60% of residents depend on the Bakasoka stream for drinking and household chores.
At the Kamteth and Gbathaball streams at Old Port Loko and other parts of the township, residents wake up as early as 5 a.m. to fetch clean water with some of them paying for the service.
However, Pa Bundu, the caretaker in one of the wells revealed that he is not paid to take care of the well and that he utilizes the money paid by the people to buy chorine to purify the water.
Port Loko District Council Chief Administrator, Alfred Nabieu Samura stated that the contractor of the pipe-borne water supply project, C & S Construction Enterprise, has not formally handed over the project as about ninety-six (96) more pipes are to be fixed.
He continued that council has put aside Le 25 million for the purchase of fuel to operate the pumps and the employment of thirty-four (34) personnel both in Lunsar and Port Loko to man the project although the project at Lunsar has been completed.
However, Alfred Nabieu Samura disclosed that people are utilizing the dustbins and tricycles provided by council to enhance sanitation and hygiene for other purposes adding that the water pressure is very high that destroys the taps in the process and appealed to the contractor to change them.
He also revealed that council has prioritized the rehabilitation of water wells in the suburbs of the township as well as procured chlorine and alum to be distributed through councilors and health workers.
Regent Chief Pa Alimamy Kamara of Maforki Chiefdom underscored that water is life and a human rights issue and reiterated the need for the availability of safe drinking water to the community for which he appealed to the contractor and council to fast-track the process to ensure that not only the community but schools and health centers have access to clean drinking water that would improve sanitation and the health of the community.
He also appealed to council to involve citizens in the planning and monitoring of projects in the township.
At the Port Loko Government Hospital, availability of water is limited hence poor sanitation for which the people urged government to deliver on its recent global commitment to spend 1% of its GDP on sanitation by 2015, with a separate budget line in the national and local council budgets, set targets for scaling up investments in water by 2015 to meet the MDG commitment on safe drinking water nationwide and a timetable to increase access to safe drinking water as well as adequate sanitation in line with Sierra Leone’s MDG commitment.
Water and sanitation must be affordable and available to all citizens of Sierra Leone and government must take the lead at all levels by increasing investment, providing skilled staff and funding at local level as well as putting priority on the vulnerable such as women, girls and disables.
By A. R. Bedor Kamara
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