By Crispina Cummings
Director General of Sierra Leone Water Company, the organisation responsible for providing clean drinking water for people living outside Freetown, has expressed disappointmentat the workings of Western Area District Council.
Samuel Bangura said the council should never have allowed deforestation and other forms of human activity to have negative impacts on the capacity of the dam at Waterloo but should ensure sufficient water was stored and distributed to thousands of residents.
He described the situation as “very serious” and called on the ministry in charge of lands and country planning and the Western Area Rural District Council “to work together to stop adverse human activity such as laundering and felling of trees around the dam site at Waterloo”.
Bangura told Politico in an interview after inspecting the dam project at Waterloo that he wanted the people of the area to have “confidence in drinking pipe borne water instead of water sold in sachets”.
The SALWACO boss also mentioned the commissioning of a new water purification project in Waterloo at the cost of Le 416 million. He said the project should be completed within four months and noted that his organisation had handed over the project to the District Council to monitor. He however said that a SALWACO Engineer would keep an eye on the water purification project.
(C) 25 February 2014
