EU project strangles FBC

Students of Fourah Bay College say they resumed lectures this week only to find out that there is no water on the entire campus, including the living quarters for staff. Thanks to a European Union-funded road rehabilitation project which has had a stranglehold over the entire FBC campus, Lower Faculty and Kortright with an estimated resident population of over 500 people. This, in addition to 3,000 students who attend lectures every day although they are not resident there. Abubakarr Bah, a final year student of the Mass Communication Department told Politico that the situation was very serious, adding that the lack of water on campus had created an unsanitary condition for students and lecturers alike. The total absence of water on campus and the lack of electricity at Kortright have lasted for nearly two months. The FBC Academic Staff Association (ASA-FBC) has protested angrily against this. In a letter written to the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the college dated 8 May 2013, they said “since the inception of the road construction at Kortright, staff have not had electricity supply to Kortright and water supply to all homes and offices. This is due to the seeming wanton destruction of water pipes and underground electricity cables”. ASA-FBC noted that while they appreciated the construction of the road leading to Kortright and the Leicester community, they were however “aggrieved by the apparent lack of concern” for their welfare, adding that they believed the road reconstruction “should have been planned to ensure alternative water and electricity sources” while the road maintenance was ongoing. The association wrote that the “sudden outage of these two most important ingredients that are germane to our very existence has gravely disrupted the accomplishment of our normal job and other academic activities, as may be demanded by administrative deadlines and ‘performance contract’”. They pointed out that such deprivation and suffering had the potential to degenerate further and disrupt fruitful college activities because it had become a burden – both financial and time – on staff of the college “to fuel private generators in homes and drive to Freetown to fetch water on a daily basis”. Meanwhile, according to the FBC Estate Office, a total of 108 homes in addition to public facilities are without water supply while 54 staff quarters, three schools and the college workshop are without electricity supply. The Chief Engineer of the Maintenance Department, Sierra Leone Roads Authority and Project Manager of Priority Infrastructure Works, Alfred Momodu told Politico that they did contact the two utility companies, especially the Guma Valley Water Company before embarking on the road maintenance at Kortright but that they didn’t cooperate with them. He said they were in constant consultation with all the major players, including NPA and the FBC authorities with the object of finding an amicable solution to the problem.