PHOTO: One of the unsafe water sources, women trying to fetch their day’s supply
By Charles Gbayor, maorethason1997@gmail.com
GRAND KRU, Liberia- Residents of some areas in the southeastern Grand Kru County, home town of President George Manneh Weah, are in desperate need of safe drinking water.
Weah is in his 5th year power after winning in a landslide victory in the presidential election in 20217.
One of such areas is Blebo in electoral district #1, where locals are fetching drinking water from creeks and streams, due to the lack of hand pumps in the town, thus exposing them to water-borne diseases.
March 22 this year was observed as World Water Day, which the United Nations has set aside “as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of water resources.”
President George Manneh Weah
Grand Kru is one of the six counties within the southern region of Liberia and this county is being represented at the Legislature by four elected lawmakers, some of whom are ranking members in the Liberian parliament.
Senator Albert Tugbe Chie, who elected as Senator of Grand Kru back in 2014, is President Pro Tempore at the Liberian Senate, while Representative J. Fonati Koffa elected representative in 2017, now serves as the Deputy Speaker of the house of representatives.
Yet people in one of Liberia’s smallest counties have long been suffering from the lack of safe drinking water.
Speaking to www.newspublictrust.com recently, residents of this area said they have been faced with challenges in getting safe drinking water for of sometime npw and it’s a serious challenge for them.
According to the Blebo residents, due to the lack of hand pumps, they are compelled to fetch water from creeks for drinking, cooking, and washing purposes, which poses a serious health risk to the lives and the children as well.
” Few hand pumps that were constructed in this town by some NGOs and community dwellers spoilt,so they now rely on untreated water from natural sources, such as bores, rivers, creeks, and springs, ” they disclosed
“We are actually finding it difficult to get safe drinking water because most of our pumps are not functioning properly, therefore, many of us are using creeks water for drinking purposes,” others lamented.
Miss. Luciana S. Brown, a female resident stressed that the lack of safe drinking is a serious problem that needs to be addressed by the Liberian Government headed by one of their sons, President Weah.
“During the rainy season, the situation is worse because creeks are polluted and by that, they have to walk distances to get water from river,” Miss. Brown noted.
The young Grand Kru female resident adds: “Let me say, sometimes if the rainfall heavily, we can walk a long distance to get water from the river or drink from dropped we get from on top of our houses because those creeks can’t be good for drinking.”
Like Luciana, locals in this area have appealed to the Liberia government and humanitarian organizations for interventions, as this situation continues to pose threat to their health and wellbeing.
Besides the serious lack of safe drinking water, the locals say they are daily confronted with other numerous challenges regarding social services.
But they are grateful to the media for helping to shed light on their plight.
“I want appreciate you (the journalists) for coming to our town and know our problem,” says Miss. Luciana Brown.