Photo of one of the damaged hand pump and the creak that is currently used by residents as water source
By Emmanuel Mafelah, mafelahemmanuel29@gmail.com
SUAKOKO, Liberia-Safe drinking water is said to be posing a serious health hazard to citizens of Gbarnae town and its surroundings and are calling on the Liberian government and humanitarian organizations to come to their aid in Suakoko, District #5, Bong County.
As a result of their damaged hand pumps, citizens of the town are currently drinking from nearby creek and river.
Gbannae, which is an historic town within Suakoko clan, has a population close to 115 inhabitants including other town and villages which survive by the area for those basic services.
According to this www.newspublictrust.com Reporter who visited the area, there are three hand pumps in the community and amongst the three only one is currently functioning, while the remaining two are damaged.
A resident of the area, Peter Dolo said due to the lack of save drinking water in the community, their children are currently suffering form running stomach/diarrhea among others water borne diseases.
Mr. Dolo who was in tears said, they are finding it very difficult to have access to get safe drinking water.
The inhabitants of this town, many of whom are women and children, usually walk for hours in the bushes to fetch safe drinking water, something Mr. Dolo said is causing serious health hazard in the community.
The Gbannae citizens have said the lack of safe drinking water is just one of the many challenges facing the area, noting that the town also lacks school, which has resorted to many schools-age children becoming farmers and bearing children prematurely.
“Indeed this situation we need to be given some attention and urgent interventions if we as citizens are to live happily and healthier,”Mammie Jackson, another resident of the community adds.
In a very sad mood, some of the citizens also said the inability of their Lawmaker and national government to provide those needed basic services, as people who stood in the sun and rain to vote them as leaders of the country is a clear manifestation that they have been forgotten.
They also believe that their rights to have access to equal opportunity have been violated over several years by Leaders they elect to represent them.
The citizens said that on many occasions, they have been seeking assistance from the district Representative, Edward Karfiah, some government officials, including humanitarians organizations but to no avail.
At the same time, the citizens here are calling on the Liberian leader, President. George Manneh Weah to direct his government’s “Pro-Poor Agenda for prosperity and development” to their aids for the improvement of their community and its dwellers.
“If the central government doesn’t quickly intervene into the situations by rehabilitating some of these damaged hand pumps,” the inhabitants of this town warned that children of the area will continue to die as the result of unsafe drinking water being used for drinking and cooking purposes.