As the saying goes water is life, and it is the most important thing in the world that you can’t do without that is why the global world is saying “A Water-Secure World for All,” by sustaining water resources, delivering service and building resilience.
Yonibana is a small rural town in Tonkolili District in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. It is the center of the Yoni Chiefdom most of its population are from the Temne ethnic group and the Temne language is widely spoken in the town. Yonibana lies approximately 28.2 miles to the district capital Magburaka and approximately 90 miles north-east of Freetown.
On Friday February 11, 2022, the water for Sierra Leone has started to construct solar powered boreholes in Yonibana Northern Sierra Leone. One of the Kamara family members, Mr. Alhaji Massaquoi, said that the team hope to construct five boreholes to provide safe clean drinking water for yonibana. The project is sponsored by ACEBED and Owasso high school AP Environmental Science in Oklahoma, headed by their teacher Shannon Chatwin.
He said that ACEBED is a non-profit organization headed by Dr. Abraham Borbo Kamara and Heather Schroeder. The goal of the partnership is to provide safe and clean drinking water and sanitation education in order to prevent Neglected Tropical Diseases such as typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, and schistosomiasis that are common in the yoni. He said that Funds for the project are raised in Tulsa and Owasso in Oklahoma, USA. The team is in talks with local healthcare workers to lead sanitary education in Yoni.
He further stated that the project worth million Leones and they are planning to construct five within the community to help the people of Yoni to reduce the level of dropout from schools because school going kids go far distance to find water.But with this support, it will help them to stay at schools.
In his keynote address,P C FulahmassaGbaberehIIrecognized the Kamara family for such a good gesture towards the community. “The community is in dire need for such facility because we have a bad land system in Yoni, but with this type of water well which is a solar it will help the community greatly,” PC Gbabereh II said. He encouraged everyone to take ownership of the facility.
Explaining about the construction of the solar borehole, Richard Fomba, Co- CEO Linted Power Service and Construction,assured the community that the water well would last for a very long timeif the community sees it as their own
Sorie Ibrahim Koroma,councillor of Ward 163, registered similar sentiment to the Kamara family as this will help students, women and children.
Nurse Abie of Yonibana Peripheral Health Unit (PHU), said that the water well would help the community greatly, citing that they had a bad experience at the clinic when water was not available.
By Desmond Tunde Coker