Residents of First Street Communityin the east of Freetown have on Thursday January 20, 2022 appealed for boreholes to prevent their children from sexual and physical exploitation while in search of water.
According to Pa Alimamy Kamara, an elder of the community, the community has two boreholes whichdry up during the dry season. He said that when the wells, dry out completely children spend much of the whole night searching for water which affects their studies and wellbeing.
He said since they hardly have access to pure water in the community, the children always go in search of water in the street which exposes girls to rape and other physical assaults.
He said over 4,000 people inhabit the mountainous communitywith hardly any access to pipe born water, and added that the community has suffered such deprivation for many decades.
“Recently, rapeand teenage pregnanciesare on the increase in the community because oflack of enough boreholes. I am appealing on behalf of my community to the government and NGOs to help us with more taps or boreholes,” he said.
MariamaSillah, 16,resides in the community with her mother. She said that her family usually pays Le4, 000 for 20 liters of unpurified water in the neighboring communities, and further added that sometimes they don’t even have accessto water even if they had the money.
Sillah, an SSS2 pupil, said she hardly has time to study evenduring examinations. She said that she most of the time she is exhausted after fetching water and couldn’t find time to study. “This, results in my poor performance,” she says. According to her they are made to put up with assaultsby men when they turn down their requests to involve with them in sex when they go out searching for places they should fetch water from within the community.
“I am appealing to the government to construct more wells for us in this communityto safeguard our future as girl from being damaged,” she pleads.
She admits that sometimes they stay in the street from morning till noon just to access water, and some of her colleagues have been sexually and physically assaultedat such times, while other girls use fetching water as an opportunity to go to their boyfriends.
By Ibrahim S. Bangura