By John Conteh in Falaba
There is an acute water shortage in Mongo Bendu which is the headquarter town of Falaba, one of the two newest districts in Sierra Leone. The shortage was reported to have caused a lot of discomfort for residents of the town.
According to Finah Marah popularly known as Keita Finah, 50 households in her area depend on only one hand pump well where she normally fetches water for both drinking and domestic use. She told Politico that the well has not been supplying the needed quantity of water to the people in recent days.
They do assemble jerry cans each representing a household from 5 am which is the agreed time for unlocking of the pump. This process of fetching water is expected to continue till 12 noon and then resumes at 4 pm to 5:30 pm but the well dries up sometimes before closing time. Finah recalls one particular moment: "I was in the queue since 7am waiting for my turn to get water, the well dried up before my turn. I therefore had no water for the day".
The care taker responsible for the well Musukura Marah fondly called Aunty Vero said the well is looked after properly and is always locked when it dries up. She disclosed that before and after the intervals, each household is entitled to not more than 15 gallons per day, 10 gallons in the morning and 5 in the evening.
The Regent Chief of Lower Mongo Kalie Jawara who takes care of another borehole with only three effective taps out of ten serving as water dispensing points, told Politico that people come from far distances to access the water facility. He added that the borehole has three tanks with a capacity of 20,000 litres but that one of the tanks with a capacity of 5,000 litres was undergoing maintenance. The chief furthered that Mongo has geographically expanded into four different new sites with each site having a distance of about 1,500 metres from the nearest the water facility. He maintained that the entire Mongo Bendugu has seven water wells of which only three are in good condition. Jawara appealed for the provision of a supporting battery for the solar panels to reserve power in the absence of sun rays so they would be able to get water even late in the evening.
A teacher at the Ansarul Islamic Junior Secondary School Balla Fofanah explained of how they have to traveled to the nearby village of Walgbasakor some three miles away from Mongo Bendugu and pay Le1,000 per Jerry can before getting water.
The Deputy Chief Administrator at the Falaba Council Moses Melvin Kanneh said the council repaired some of the water facilities but are still not enough to supply the people in the various communities within the town.
“I was once a victim of water shortage and before my turn in the queue came, the well got dried up and I had to go home empty handed" Kanneh said. He stated that all the thirteen chiefdoms across Falaba district are seriously challenged with water crisis especially during the dry season.
Copyright (c) 2021 Politico Online (16/04/21)
