Several communities in Tenenba, a section of Bramaia Chiefdom in Kambia District northern Sierra Leone, have benefitted from eight water wells funded by stakeholders in the community. According to Kabir Sumah, an elder in Tenenba, the beneficiary communities had been without water from boreholes for decades with their inhabitants drawing water from rivers, streams and dams instead.
Sumah explained that previously water which they drew from the streams either gets contaminated during the rainy season or dries up in the dry season, leaving them with no hope but to fetch water from the river.
He said as a result on drinking contaminated water drawn from rivers and streams, it is common for inhabitants of the area to suffer diarrhoea and other water borne diseases.
He emphasized, “We have lived in such situation over decades now without any help. So due to frequent illness from water we used to drink over the past years, we decided to work as a team to see that all the communities in the section have pure drinking water.”
He revealed that the digging of the boreholes started early in January 2021, and that work on eight, out of a total of 10 Water Wells, has recently been completed.
Sumah explained that, the section also lacks a health centre, good roads and schools, saying: “lack of a health centre, good road network and schools in this section is really affecting us seriously. Some of us do not have the resources to send our kids to school located far away.”
He said that early marriages and teenage pregnancies were frequent in the section. “Because our children are not going to school, they are married off and some get pregnant very early. This always increases poverty in the society, but if schools are available in this section, all of such would not happen.”
He revealed that stakeholders in the community have teamed up in a concerted attempt to overcome the challenge of ensuring that there are schools, health centre and good road network in Tenenba section Bramaia Chiefdom.
By Ibrahim S.Bangura
02/02/2021. ISSUE NO: 7993