By Hassan I. Conteh
As the month of May enters, Mabinty Koroma, who is barren, wishes to see early droplets of rain as she gets tired of fetching water in the dries. She, among others living on hilltop communities in Freetown, usually struggles a lot in search of water.
On May 3rd this year, when the weather became cloudy, residents in the hill areas became elated over signs of heavy raindrops. On that day, Mabinty quickly moved out large bowls under the roof below the drainage. Her neighbours also rushed to place theirs in readiness for the rain. But the rain never came heavily as expected.
Their rubber bowls were only filled with dirty water of the first rains that tapped over the rooftops. The rainy season obviously brings hopes and solace to Mabinty and many others in Freetown who stay in the hillsides.
Heavy downpours are expected to fall early May and end in October. And during this period, residents are so happy. Those who live in mountainous environments are the happiest during such periods.
But in the middle of the dries, the likes of Mabinty have no option but to trek long distances made up of cobbles to fetch water.
It’s common to see large numbers of people gathering at water points, notably around ground wells. Women and children, especially school-goers, have to abandon their homes before the cock crows early in the morning.
“To live at Leicester Road is very, very difficult for us, because of the shortage of pure and drinking water,” admit the residents.
At night hours, children and women spend hours waiting for their turns at dugout wells. School children often fall pregnant. Others miss out on lessons at schools. Weaknesses step in as they journey to their various schools tirelessly. At home, they couldn’t have much time to study as they spend endless hours at water points.
Owing to the teeming crowd, in these water catchments, some people decide to wake up in the middle of the night. They go to fetch water at late hours when the number of people dwindles. The situation at Leicester is similar to other places especially in the east of city.
In fact, other communities seem to struggle a lot more to have water to drink or use for domestic purpose. Like Mount Aureol, Mountain Cut, Moeba and Calaba Town communities are considered to be the hardest-hit areas in terms of water shortage.
To salvage the problem of water, private individuals dig up wells and sell the water to others, creating employment for themselves. But, in the middle of the dry season, the ground water dries up, leading to more suffering among community people.
Some popular water catchments, at Mount Aureol, such as Bod Wata and Machambo, have completely dried up. As a result, residents go to other communities nearby in search of water. One of these places is named Botany, a swampy area where many wells are built by some community people at Leicester Road.
In the early mornings and late evenings, many people from different communities gather at Botany. “We are a bit better at Leicester Road, because one could access water here unlike other communities where access to water remains a big problem,” says, one of the residents.
However, going to Botany to fetch water is not an easy stroll. One has to walk about half a mile. The road leading to the swampy area is precariously steep as well. In the absence of street pumps in the city, alternative sources of water are not common either.
Over the years, reports have shown that a good number of households couldn’t get easy access to purified water. And that results into many illnesses as people drink the contaminated water.
Getting clean and pure water, suitable for drinking purposes, is an opportunity denied by many residents in Freetown. And it is a right that is denied the citizens by the government. Governments, past and present, are unable to provide lasting solution to the perennial problem of water crisis.
The dry season is especially the most worrisome as wells get dry, whilst pumps shut for days or even weeks in some areas.
Unlike in the early 1990s, when Freetown used to have streets taps, today the street taps have become distant memories in the minds of people.
It’s now common to see people fixing up jerry cans onto cut pipes along the streets to fetch water. Streets pipes are few. Those previously being built couldn’t be repaired. Others are put up by some community members. Not the Government. The community pays installation rates to authorities that supply water to these taps.
At present, there are talks of building up “water kiosks.” The kiosks are expected to mitigate the suffering of people owing to the shortage of water.
The Ministry of Water Resources, together with Guma Valley Water Company (GVWC), is championing the water kiosks project. But Guma Valley Water Company, which is responsible to provide water to residents in Freetown, is yet to expand the project to communities where Mabinty at Leicester Road and others live.
Worst of it is the water kiosks have been greeted with wider criticisms among communities where they have lately been built. Most residents at Tengbeh Town, west of Freetown, for example, say Guma now slows down to supply them water through their original taps.
They suspect that Guma is doing that because they’ve already provided them with water kiosks.
Clarifying such issues, a senior official at GVWC couldn’t deny residents’ claims, but emphasized the importance of water kiosks facility.
“The Guma kiosks are set up in a way of sharing 24 hour water supply through the taps,” explains Prince Moore-Sourie, GVWC Chief Engineer.
Where water kiosks are built, the community people are required to pay for the service. In an interview with this press, he said: “The water stored in those tanks will be used by the vendor in charge of the tanks through an agreement with Guma to supply water to the people. So the people would have to pay for the water,” he said.
Currently, Freetown is under serious threat as its main source of water, from Guma Dam, experiences rapid decline of water supply.
Explaining the magnitude of the problem, Ing. Sourie confirmed that the dam has had about 10,000 drops of cubic water, which could roughly supply a population of over one thousand people daily.
Under the British administration, Freetown’s Guma Dam was meant to provide water to only 800,000 residents.
But owing to the city’s teeming population, partially caused by the 11 year civil war, authorities say there is need to build other major dams to sustain Freetown’s growing population, which is now around 2 million people.
But plans to turn things around are still on sketch maps, owing to officials’ windy promises.
Government plans to address water constraints in the city have turned to aborted dreams. The plans are still pipeline projects. Whilst the projects still remain on pipeline, the dreams of a barren Mabinty, who dares to have a tap at home, are being dashed.
She has, in fact, ruled out the possibility of getting anyone in future. Instead, she has asked her relatives to help her with a grown up child from the provinces who could help her with the routine work of getting water from Botany at Leicester Road.
“Next year (dry season) I shall bring a child from the provinces,” she said.