The CRR north village has no borehole. Residents often fetch water from a 55-metre deep well for both drinking and domestic uses. They also fetch water for their livestock from the same well which is over 30 years.
Speaking to The Point on Monday, Saloum Kah, village head, described the lack of good water source such as borehole at the village as the greatest constraint for the village.
“The water constraint in the village is too much. We have a well of 55 metres deep and four people have to jointly lift a 20 litres gallon of water from the well. Even that they have to struggle harder to lift the container from the well,” he complained sorrowfully.
Mr. Kah recalled a previous fire outbreak in the village that consumed a house entirely, and added that the residents were unable to put off the fire due to lack of water at the village.
“If a borehole was available we would have cooled down the fire in a short span of time,” he said.
According to 2021 executive budget, the Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources was allocated two hundred and eighty-nine million, four hundred and thirty-one thousand and four hundred dalasis (289,431,400).
Kah said he appealed to government to come to their aid but no positive response was received.
On the cleanliness of the water, he said the water is not safe for drinking, justifying that it is dirty. “The lack of clean water is affecting our health,” he said.
Isatou Sowe, chairperson for the village development committee said: “The hard labour women are doing when fetching water from the well often hurts our palms and makes us have general body pain,” she claimed.
“The well does not have clean water and getting the water is tedious too,” she complained bitterly.
Penda Bah, a women leader, told this reporter that many women have lost weight due to the hard labour involved in fetching water from the well.
This nightmare, she said mostly affect pregnant women, justifying that it requires hard labour which is not good for such women. However, she was quick to add that despite that, pregnant women continue doing such hard work daily.
“Mostly if we (women) are sick and go to health centre healthcare officers would say our sickness was due to hard labour,” she said.
Meanwhile, they all called on government and development partners to provide them with borehole in order to improve their living standard.
This reporter tried to contact the regional water resources coordinator, Yahya Jobe but to no avail at the time of going to press.
