By Joseph Lamin Kamara
The rainy season is upon Sierra Leone again. It is the period many roads become unmotorable and the period many communities are deprived of basic cooking utensils. It is the period of flooding and a moment for armed robbers. Even worse, Ebola is still here, and cholera normally breaks out in this season.
There will be difficulty in transporting medical logistics in the fight against Ebola because roads are still deplorable in most parts of the country despite government’s efforts in improving on the country`s road infrastructure. Flooding has destroyed many lives and property several times and it is inevitable because the country’s land is indiscriminately being cleared and razed for mining and construction of houses. And cholera is unavoidable because access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation remain elusive.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the Ebola outbreak will be difficult to contain in the rainy season and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), one of the international aid agencies at the centre of the fight against the virus, recently said it would involve a painful task in ending the outbreak.
When the WHO country office earlier this year said eradicating Ebola in the rainy season would be difficult, it pointed out bad road network which it feared would hinder their job.
“At the moment access to Ebola-affected communities around the country is somehow easy, but it will be very difficult to reach communities . . ,” Pieter Desloovere, WHO country office spokesperson, told Politico in February.
And last month, the spokesperson of the National Ebola Response Centre, Sidi Yahya Tunis expressed the same fear saying their “target was to end Ebola before the rainy season.”
The latest report by the research group Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) shows poor water facility and sanitation have rendered Sierra Leone easily susceptible to outbreaks of diseases like cholera.
“Overall, only half of the population has access to improved drinking water sources,” the report says.
Sources of water
The report, a service delivery index for education, health water and sanitation between March and May, 2014, states that most of the highest access to improved sources of water was found in the capital Freetown. But, “notwithstanding the high access found in the Western Area, it is not uncommon to see long queues of buckets and rubber containers at public and household taps in different sections of Freetown.”
A good number of houses in Freetown do not have access to water. If they do, taps hardly run for three consecutive days in a week or they get water from improvised wells of underground water. It is normal to see children at the ages of six and seven, and adults queuing up in the morning and at night to fetch water from cut pipes running through filthy drainage channels along streets. Many residents have dug holes where they collect underground water in their compounds, which they refer to as spring water. In many cases the sources of such water are from mountain or hill tops where people defecate and deposit garbage.
Sanitation in the country is horrible especially in Freetown, and it has grave health implications. In riverine communities like Susan’s Bay, King Jimmy, Moa Wharf, people openly defecate and deposit garbage in drainages and waters where fishing is done and which are used for domesticate purposes in other communities. In these communities, pigs which feed on the contents of the drainages rush bowls of food items in the markets nearby.
Even in the west of the capital which is considered to be more hygienic than the east, many houses lack toilet facilities. In many compounds residents defecate in plastic bags which they throw in waters nearby.
It is even common to see traders in the Freetown central business district bending down to either urinate or defecate in holes just below where they sit behind their tables or trays.
“Nationally, only 47% of households have access to proper sanitation. This means the use of flush or pours flush toilet, pit latrine or VIP latrines which are not shared with other households,” says IGR in its report.
The report says access to sanitation is a challenge in the country and only 11% of households have access to safe refuse disposal facility.
Common killers
So, it is clear why malaria, typhoid and cholera are common killers in Sierra Leone. Even after the country had its worst outbreak of cholera that claimed hundreds of lives in 2012, the situation appears to remain the same.
The 2012 cholera outbreak was a terrifying one, and according to WHO, water and sanitation were the major causes.
“Until there is significant improvement in the water and sanitation infrastructure, Sierra Leone will continue to be vulnerable to cholera,” William Perea, coordinator of WHO`s Control of Epidemic Diseases unit.
Cholera normally breaks out in the rainy season, but the 2012 outbreak began in February, mid of the dry season, and over 2000 cases were already recorded. When the rainy season finally started in June, according to WHO, more than 2000 cases were recorded per week in early August.
“More than half of all the cases were in the Western area where the capital Freetown is,” WHO said.
About 392 people were reported to have been killed by that outbreak.
Cholera is a water-borne disease that is spread through an intake of contaminated food or water.
Since that 2012 outbreak, the country has been recording other cholera outbreaks though with less fatalities than before.
The 2004 Local Government Act devolved sanitation duties from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to local councils, but the Freetown City Council says it lacks proper capacity to do its job.
“Devolution should come along with funds, technical personnel and logistics,” says Environment and Social Officer, Sulaiman Zainu Parker, at the council.
Parker confirms sanitation in the capital is poor, but he says they were engaged in public health education to ensure there are proper toilet facilities and drainages.
“Quite a good number of households do not have toilet facilities,” he adds.
However, both Parker and the council’s spokesperson, Cyril Mattia, say the council is having serious problems with the judiciary.
Mattia says they have made several arrests and charged defaulters to court, but “for months they keep postponing our matters with nothing being done.”
In spite of all those, the Sierra Leone Water Company (SALWACO), responsible to supply water to provincial areas, says it is ready for any outbreak like cholera.
Its head, Samuel Bangura, says in their disaster readiness they have bought enough chlorine and were using it to purify water facilities.
Bangura argues that though they have not done any assessment of their work in recent times, two years ago, they had a record of 57% of Sierra Leoneans that had access to safe drinking water.
“Throughout this Ebola crisis, the MSF in Kailahun used the water that we have been providing,” he defends.
He says SALWACO has rehabilitated the water facilities in Kambia, Kailahun, Lungi, Mile 91, Lunsar, Pujehun, Magboroka and Rokupr, and the same projects were ongoing in Bo, Kenema, Makeni and Kabala.
Mr Bangura also says they have provided 70 toilet facilities in Bo, 50 in Kenema and 63 Kenema.
© Politico 02/06/15
