Some wait in the queue with plastic cans for the whole day just to fetch a bit of safe drinking water.
People residing in Monrovia’s densely populated slum district of West Point, which is being eaten away by sea erosion, are hit hard on all sides by the social calamities of life.
While poor sanitation remains a daunting challenge, access to safe drinking water is seriously lacking, something local authorities have acknowledged.
The area lacks proper sanitation and public toilets and a report by United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that there are four public toilets in the area, leaving many vulnerable to water borne diseases.
Pay toilets exist, but most residents of the sprawling West Point settlement which lies in the heart of the Liberian capital, cannot afford them, and thus public defecation is common, the report said.
The beach surrounding West Point is often used as a lavatory which creates health hazards as the water is used for drinking and fish from the water are consumed.
Some residents here say in addition to the lack of safe drinking water, the lack of quality health facilities are among others major challenges they face daily.
One of them, Teah Amos Dee said there is no safe drinking water and as such they have to buy a sack of water for LD $100 or go to a far distance to fetch save drinking water.
“The water problem during dry season is not easy, we have to go to a far distance to fetch save drinking water,” he said.
According to him, water is life and as such they should not be deprived of safe drinking water.
Another resident of the area Saah Tamba said the water problem in their area is causing serious problem for them, stressing that they have continued to endure this problem for a long time now.
Both Teah and Saah think the national government and local authorities have not done enough to provide safe drinking/tap water for inhabitants on the coastal township.
“We have made calls to the government, mainly the commissioner and we believe he is aware of what is happening in this township,” Dee said.
For Teah, the plight of the people of West Point is even being compounded by inadequate and quality health care.
“We have just few health center in West Point and due to the distance some of us are unable to get there,” he said.
When contacted, the Commissioner of the township confirmed the shortage of safe drinking water in the area.
Commissioner Sampson Nyan attributed the shortage of safe drinking water to the damage of the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) pipeline connecting the township.
He said this has led to the lack of safe drinking water for over a month in his township.
Nyan also said acknowleged that there is lack of quality health facilities in his township, with only one clinic to cater for tens of thousands of inhabitants.
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Right calls for adequate access to health, water and sanitation.
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control,” the UDHR says.
West Point is on a pennisula which juts out into the Atlantic Ocean between the Mesurado and Saint Paul Rivers.
Home to approximately 75,000 people, West Point is one of Monrovia’s most densely populated slums.
According to environmentalists, degradation of the environment has gradually caused part of the peninsula to erode into the ocean. Endemic problems include overpopulation and diseases such as tuberculosis.
An experiment in the 1970s to move people from West Point failed Residents returned despite squalid living conditions.
People moved back to fish and make a living as informal shopkeepers and service providers close to the city center. Report by George Buway