An international NGO, Water Aid yesterday released a report on access to water and sanitation in five African countries. It says that despite the expressed commitment of the Government of Sierra Leone to invest in water as it does to the millennium development goals, just around half the people have access to the precious resource, and only 13 percent have good sanitation. The report looks at Niger, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda and Sierra Leone. And while it says that some efforts have generally been made in the sector, it stresses that huge challenges remain and urges governments and donors to improve on the situation by keeping to their promises in the provision to water. There is unequal access to water with people living in rural areas bearing the brunt and being excluded, says the report. 34% of rural communities have access to water while only six have access to sanitation with only 0.01% of the country’s GDP spent on sanitation in 2012. Minister of Water Resources, Momodu Maligie says his government is on course to attain the provision of water to most Sierra Leoneans both in urban and rural areas. He told Politico that main towns throughout the country would have access to pipe-borne water, adding “before the end of this presidential term, chiefdom headquarter towns will also have pipe-borne water” (See full interview here: http://politicosl.com/2013/02/interview-water-resources-minister-assures...) Maada Kpenge, the Deputy General Manager of Guma Valley , the company responsible for water in the Western Area, says about 60% of residents have access to water but admits that half that number have to fetch water from street taps. He told Politico that people living on hills were among those lacking in access because the company could not afford to pump the water owing to resource limitation. Kpenge said the water infrastructure in the capital was very old – “over forty years” - with not much having been done over the years to replace the ageing pipes. “We are doing a number of things” he said, assuring that in the next few months they hope to improve water supply from Allen Town to Calaba Town and its neighbourhoods in the east of Freetown. He said plans were also underway to address the water needs of Hill Station and Regent in the Mountain Rural area.
The company was also working on “an emergency programme” for areas that are not getting water including drilling boreholes throughout Freetown. He said Guma Valley Company needed a lot of money to function effectively and satisfactorily. The situation is even grimmer in the provinces with very few towns having piped water and limited sanitation something experts say led to the country’s worst cholera outbreak last year, killing over 200 people
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