PHOTO: Tellewoyan polytanks/water reservoir literally running dry
By Tokpa Tarnue, tarnue82@gmail.com
VOINJAMA, Liberia- For Lack of WATER, the Tellewoyan Hospital in Lofa County, 394km north-west of Monrovia, with the lives of patients with critical health status and even lives of service providers and professionals of the facility endangered.
The availability of clean water in health facilities is critical to providing quality health care, the absence of which could cause lives to be lost.
Workers in health care facilities also need sufficient quantities of safe water to provide health care services.
Drinking, hand hygiene, showering, bathing, and a variety of general and specialized medical uses all require safe and reliable supplies of water, which is also essential for cleaning rooms, beds, floors, toilets, sheets and laundry.
It is central to patient experiences of health care, as it enables them to remain hydrated, to clean themselves, and to reduce the risk of infections but without water, a health care facility isn’t a health care facility.
So is the current situation at the Tellewoyan Memorial Hospital in Lofa, which is the County’s only Referral Hospital providing health and delivery services to about 50-69 people across the county daily.
This hospital is currently at a risk of losing lives of patients and in like directions endangering the lives of service providers and professionals due to lack of WATER.
An investigation conducted by a team of reporters has discovered that the administration of the hospital has explored all available options and put to place all water supply mechanisms for the smooth running of the facility but still a challenge.
The administration of the hospital, having consider the need for additional water source, entered into an agreement with the Municipal Water System, A public water supply system or water supply network including water treatment facilities, water storage facilities (reservoirs, water tanks and water towers) and a pipe network for distributing the treated water to customers including residential, industrial, commercial or institutional establishments.
This water supply source as part of the agreement entered, conditioned the administration of the hospital to purchase and make available all the needed equipment that would pipe facility for the supplies of water into the hospital and with no better alternatives the administration did the needful and so the supply started in 2019.
Three months after, the management of the Municipal Water System alarmed to the administration that they had reached a bill amount of twenty thousand United States Dollars ($ USD 20,000.00). But the administration of the Tellewoyan Memorial Hospital argued that the amount mentioned for three months was so huge to be used by the facility for water and so the debate was raised to the degree that USAID had to intervene and that resulted to the waiver of the money due the hospital.
After the waiver of the twenty thousand, the supply continued with the cooperation of the two parties until early January when the administration of the Tellewoyan Memorial Hospital engaged the management of the water supply entity and raised concern of terminating the agreement. This is on grounds of the limited financial strength of the hospital to pay water bill of such and that the amount is too huge to be afforded considering the operational budget of the facility.
At that point, the agreement was terminated and the facility was immediately disconnected but with an amount of a little over six thousand United States Dollars to be paid again to zero in their obligation with the water source and that is yet to be paid.
All other alternative water sources for the facility have dried up and the facility has run out of water completely thereby risking the lives of patients and service providers of the hospital.
Considering the daily outcries and countless complaints of patients and even staffers of the facility, if care is not taken timely, the need of water and sanitation might be the primary factor causing the loss of lives in the county’s biggest referral hospital.