Residents of Tree Planting Community complain of lack of drinking water

Despite the nation’s economic situation, many residents of the Tree Planting Community in the Western Area of Freetown said they spend about Le100, 000 monthly to buy water for drinking and for their domestic use and have complained that they lack drinking water. According to the water is not just a commodity but its necessity could be equated to life and this luxury is the one they find it so hard to access unavailability.

In a tour round at the community, Beyond Borders saw people were seen scooping water from little drops of run from the rocks to survive.

Speaking to this medium on Tuesday 1 November, the Chairman of Tree Planting Community, Daniel Benjamin James said that the majority of those in the community could not afford to buy water now, which is now as scarce as gold.

He lamented that many of the public water taps provided by the government are far away from them, and therefore they are calling on the Government, especially Guma Valley, to come to their aid to salvage the water crises they are faced with. ”most people in this community spend almost Le 100,000 every month just to buy pure water and not all of us can afford it. Which is why we are calling on the government to intervene to solve this water crisis for us in Tree planting” he said.

Pregnant woman, Mariama Kamara explained her experience, she said to go out late to fetch water for her domestic, adding that for people to get a clear day they have to wake up as earlier as 5 am in the morning and that with her conditions she cannot afford to be wakened at that very time just rush to the stream to get clean water.

“My brother, it is not really easy for us here at tree planting, we are really constrained to getting clean and pure drinking water. As you can see, if I don’t wake up earlier in the morning hours to come to this place to fetch water, I will not get clean water for a day. I most times come here late, so that is why you are seeing me fetching this duty one” she cried.  

A student of Fourah Bay College, who identified himself simply as Alpha Sesay, said, “I usually wake up around 5 am every day to search for water. There is no water in pipe born water in the Tree Planting Community. If you wake up by 7 am, you may not bathe that day because there won’t be any clean water in the stream anymore. I am tired of this.” Speaking further, Sesay recalled that he used to wash his clothes whenever there was rain.

“From August this year, I used to wash my clothes regularly. Then, there was water because the rain was still falling. But, how do you expect me to wash my clothes when there is no water to bathe, cook or do other things?” he queried.

“This is because of the ‘rocky nature’ of the soil, which makes digging more difficult and expensive. That is why most people are seen on the streets with containers, searching for water from one place to another,” he also lamented.

In his words, a resident of the Tree planting Community, Mahmoud Fofanah called on the government at all levels to come to the aid of Tree planting people by providing state-of-the-art solar-powered boreholes in strategic locations and placing same under the supervision of the Community Development Associations (CDA) for proper maintenances.

This he said would reduce water scarcity, adding that it is the only way to encourage regular cleaning in the face of any deadly diseases.

Efforts made by this medium to respond to calls of the Tree Planting Community by the Ministry of Water Resources and also Guma Valley Water Company became futile.