Guma Valley - No money, Mo Problems

Pump Lock!! No water here! It was very sad reading about the lack of water in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital city. In all honesty though - we should have seen it coming! In 1985, the population of Freetown was about 500,000 and even then not everyone had constant flow of water. The population standard at approx 1m to 1.5 million people and with no increase in guma capacity it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this was bound to happen. The excuse that has been put forward is lower than expected rainfall - but i'm not buying that. It is a combination of factors and in fact i'm led to believe that the past few years the water resources of Guma have been depleted. Deforestation, too few paying bills and lack of proper housing planning are other issues. We as a people, as a govt need to act quick! This is not an issue to dilly dally on... we need short term fixed and quick. This is not just for individual homes but also industries - word is that Sierra Leone Brewery and cold storage (producer of soft drinks) are already feeling the strain. What?? NO BEER?!!? no Pota?! No Pega?! arggh!

On a serious note, this is a potential health issue waiting to blow up and should not be taken lightly. Word reaches us that anofficial said that he had examined the yellowish-brown water "under a microscope" and it is safe to drink! After you sir...

What can we do now? There has been a lot of talk about privatisation. Understandably privatisation of water will always be a sensitive issue and Dfid came under fire for suggesting it. Where guma will get the money for significant improvements and increasing capacity - only God knows. Short term measures such as praying for rain may just be how only hope... oh dear. Or maybe something like this.
I'm confident that the rains will come - the peak periods are July, August and Sept which is the other reason why the lacck of rain excuse does not hold water with me. Excuse the pun.

We have been discussing these issues in greater depth as well as looking into other suggestions (in addition to praying for rain, of course) over in the forum. Do stop by:
http://forum.visitsierraleone.org/forum_posts.asp?TID=324&PN=3

Other links of interest:
Sierra Leone: Freetown is Crumbling: No Light, No Water, Fuel Now Le13,500

Guma Dam almost Dry

Difd under fire for mentioning the P word

Someone order a container of LifeStraws

Sierra Leone: Power and water project

Power and Water Project - World Bank info