PHOTO: A creek in Kampala Town, Grand Bassa County, one of the remote communities without safe drinking water. Credit: King Brown/News Public Trust/New Narratives.
King Brown and Anthony Stephens with New Narratives
KAMPALA TOWN, Grand Bassa County—Benjamin Dorson has never had access to safe drinking water in the fifteen years since he was born here. The teenager walks 30 minutes with heavy cans to collect water from creeks and open wells. He says he and his three smaller brothers are always sick with fevers and running stomachs, because of waterborne illnesses.
Dorson’s mother, Rebecca Williams, boils water over firewood or filters it through cloth to try to make it safe. But no matter what she does, Williams says, her children are always sick.
“As I speak to you, the water made my daughter sick,” says Williams, 38. “If you see her, you will feel bad. She’s at the hospital.”
The illnesses are so constant Williams says that she saved up and spent $LD4000 on medicine for fever, diarrhea, malaria, headache, and typhoid so she has the medicines at home ready and doesn’t have to spend $LD600 each time to travel to a clinic 3-hour drive away in Buchanan when the children fall sick.
Even still, Dorson says he has no choice but to drink the water. “I am forced to drink it, because there’s no safe water.”
Dorson is among 65 percent of Liberia’s rural population with basic access to safe drinking water, according to a report released in July by the Joint Monitoring Program (JMP), which comprises the World Health Organization and Unicef. The JMP defines basic drinking water as “water drawn from an improved source, provided collection time is not more than 30 minutes for a roundtrip including queuing.”
The JMP report shows a marginal increase in people with access to safe drinking water of four percent from last year. While there may be some progress Liberia remains 20 percentage points behind its 2022 promise to the Sanitation and Water for All global partnership—a gathering of stakeholders in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector – to provide “access to basic water supply systems in rural areas and by 2023, increase access to basic safe drinking water services by 85%.”
The water crisis faced by Williams and her family is experienced daily by Liberians across the country. Many have never seen or drunk safe drinking water and boil or filter the water they gather from creeks, rivers, and other sources, in rice bags. Liberia is still subject to a high prevalence of infectious food or waterborne diseases (bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and typhoid fever), according to a 2020 report by the WHO.
Bobby Whitfield, Chief Executive Officer of Liberia’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Commission insists the country remains on track to achieving its goal.
“When this government took over, basic coverage, a basic asset to water by our people across the country was around 72 percent,” says Whitfield by telephone. “We’ve managed to push it up to 76 now 78 [percent]. If we put a little more effort and accelerate progress, we are able to match or meet our deadline for our people.”
Another ambitious promise that has not been met by the Weah administration is contained in the Pro Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD), its development roadmap. Similar to the promises in the Sanitation and Water for All global partnership, it says “by 2023, the government aims to have equitable, safe, affordable and sustainable water supply and sanitation services for all Liberians.” Whitfield acknowledges the challenges of meeting the goal set out in the PAPD blaming it on the COVID pandemic.
“We had to suspend or redirect the intervention of our partners to fighting COVID-19,” says Whitfield. “That had a little bit of dip in our progress towards giving access [to water].”
Goal six of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is 100% access to safe drinking water by 2030. The SDG statement says “access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is the most basic human need for health and well-being”. A 2019 World Bank report quotes Liberia’s WASH Sector Investment Plan (SIP), as saying that the country needs “US$120 million per year for five years to stay on track for the access targets set by the Government WASH policies.”
In August 2022, the US government, through the United States Agency for International Development(USAID), announced $US30 million of funding to the sector. Although Whitfield admits an annual combined government-donor contribution “is way less than what is being projected in that SIP report—around $US44-45 million,” he claims that with big support from the U.S. government and World Bank, the country is “heading towards 80% already” on meeting the goal of access for all Liberians.
WASH experts reject Whitfield’s claims.
“At current rate of progress, 81% of people in Liberia will have access to at least a basic water supply service by 2030,” says a source with long years of experience in the WASH sector, in an email to New Narratives/News Public Trust. That person asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the Weah administration. “For 100% of people in Liberia to have access to basic drinking water by 2030, the current rate of progress would have to accelerate by 4.6 times.”
Though the Liberian government provides just 2 percent of funding to the sector according to Whitfield, allocations to the WASH Commission in the 2023 national budget raised questions about the government’s commitment to the issue. 2023 saw a cut of nearly 30 percent in funding from the previous year’s budget of nearly $US1.1million. Whitfield insists it does not reflect a cut to WASH spending as a whole.
“That budget is for the WASH Commission and not a WASH sector budget by government,” says Whitfield. “We are working with the Ministry of Finance to have a standalone WASH budget.” Whitfield says it means “everything we do across the country related to WASH… you don’t fully appreciate that there is other WASH funding with different line ministries, agencies and commissions.”
It was not possible to verify that claim.
But Whitfield’s himself questioned the sincerity of the government’s funding to the Commission at the official launch of the USAID Countywide Sanitation Activity in Monrovia in 2022. Whitfield told donors and others at the launch that the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning had reneged on its commitment to allocate $US500,000 to the Commission. He claimed “two, three months later, they [ministry] brought it down to $US250,000. When we went back to access the $US250,000, it’s no longer there.” The Ministry did not respond to requests for comments on the claims.
Not only is the Commission’s budget a subject of discussion, the budget for the National Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC), another institution that’s been involved with WASH, has also faced scrutiny from stakeholders who say it is difficult to know whether the Corporation received its budget allocation because of a “lack of transparency” at the organization.
In the 2023 budget nearly $US1.7 million was allocated to the LWSC. But Alphonso Gaye, the Corporation’s managing director, told New Narratives/News Public Trust by WhatsApp that “I just took over the institution and I am not fully aware of most of the information that you want.” He didn’t respond to subsequent calls and messages, seeking additional comments.
Ledgerhood Rennie, Liberia’s Information Minister, did not respond to requests for comment about funding to the LWSC and the WASH Commission.
Meanwhile Liberians continue to struggle, become sick and die.
“The water we are drinking is dirty,” says Felicia Daywoe, another community resident in Kampala Town. “We’re appealing to the people [government and partners] to help us with handpumps, because our people are dying. Our children are getting sick.” This story was collaboration with New Narratives as part of the “Investigating Liberia” project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Monrovia. The funder had no say in the story’s content.