By Mohamed T Massaquoi in Pujehun
The ministry of social welfare, gender and children’s affairs in the southern district headquarter town of Pujehun has confirmed to Politico that child labour is on the increase in the whole of that area.
This disclosure by Alieu Francis Finor, the probation officer attached to the ministry, comes after the death of a 7-year-old child in Yonni town, Kpanga Kabondeh chiefdom, whose body was discovered floating in a community water well, some three kilometres from Pujehun town.
“Sending a 7-year-old child to fetch water is a complete child labour and Pujehun district has seen an increase with regards such. With all our interventions over the years the situation is still far from over,” he said.
“This is a very big setback not only for the ministry but for the district and the state as a whole,” the government official lamented, adding that “this will also create social breakdown among family members and therefore as a ministry we are strongly advising people against child labour in the district.”
Finor told Politico that “light work for children only starts at the age of 13, maximum 15,” referring to the incident as a serious crime, according to the Child Rights Act of the country.
He said they later learnt that the deceasedhad gone together with her elder sister, aged 12, to fetch water from the borehole while their grandmother was away.
“The girl was living in a complete destitute home,” he said, adding that that at the time of the incident their grandma was in Pujehun town in search of food for that day.
The ministry official blamed local authorities in the district for not complimenting the efforts of his ministry in the protection of children’s rights against violations. He claimed that such forms of drowning were frequent because “parents engage children in sand mining along the banks of the river Wanjei”.
He referred to Malen chiefdom and the riverine chiefdoms as the most notorious for child labour cases, noting that:“most children are made to work for Socfin Company while others in Makpele, Barri and Sorogbeima chiefdoms engage in diamond mining.”
He said on several occasions he had met under-age going to fish along the Atlantic Ocean, I mean deep sea.”
A civil society activist working for Health For All Coalition in the district, Mohamed Kallon, expressed frustration at the operations of nongovernmental organizations who received funding to provide safe drinking water in the district.He blamed the death of the girl on the failure to provide good water facilities in the district.
“I also blame the district council because they are not monitoring the operations of these NGOs who are not working in the interest of the district,” Kallon lamented.
But chairman of the Pujehun district council, Sadiq Silla, firstexpressed sadness over the death of the girl and promised that he was going to engage local authorities to discourage child labour in the district with support from the District Officer, the security sector and the youths.
He said they were going to put every measure in place to see that the issue of safe drinking water was addressed in the district and added that 3 weeks ago he had a meeting with the Sierra Leone Water Company in that regard.
He, however, argued that the death of the 7-year-old was never a result of the shortage of safe drinking water but the carelessness of the parents.
“We have no control over NGOs supporting projects and therefore nobody should cast blame on the council with regards the said absence of proper monitoring,” the chairman said.
Meanwhile, a report released to Politico by Dr. David Bome,the District Medical Officer in Pujehun, indicated that in early April this year38 people fell ill with diarrhoea in Mano Sakrim chiefdom. He blamed those cases on “the complete lack of safe drinking water”.
The district engineer at the water resource ministry in Pujehun, Umaru Rogers,had earlier told Politico that “most of the NGOs are owned by senior government officials and that makes my work irrelevant to the people because my reports on the negligence of these organizations are not treated with seriousness”.
The police could decline to comment on despite several attempts to by Politico to their own side of the many issues raised from different quarters by different authorities.
In a related issue the ministry of mines and mineral resources said in a statement released on April 29 that it was gravely concerned about several reports on illegal mining activities and the use of child labour in Sanda Loko and Sella Limba Chiefdoms in Bombali District, north of the country.
“On the issue of illegal mining and the use of child labour, some local residents in these chiefdoms are engaged in illegal mining of columbite and tantalite (coltan). In addition to their illegal mining activities, these local residents have also been using child labour in their mining operations. These activities contravene the Mines and Minerals Act of 2009, and they also pose serious health and environmental concerns”, the release said.
The National Minerals Agency, which regulates the sector, said it was working with stakeholders, including the Environment Protection Agency, the Sierra Leone Police and the chiefdom authorities to stop the use of child labour.
© Politico 07/05/15
