By: Thaimu Bai Sesay
The Director General of Guma Valley Water Company Maada S Kpenge has on Tuesday 19th March 2024 at the weekly Government press briefing assured of adequate water supply in long deprived communities including Imat, Hamilton and others.
It could be recalled that the Guma Valley Water Company had been returned to Government operationalization due to Government’s intention of ensuring that the company is fully capacitated to supply adequate water in every part of Western Area.
At the press briefing the Guma Valley Director General began by stating the mandate of the GUMA Valley Water Company in which he said they are only tasked with the responsibility to supply water to the Western Urban, adding that there are other companies responsible to cater for beyond Waterloo and up country.
DG Maada Kpenge intimated that their main facility is the Guma Dam which has the capacity to supply 75 percent of the water the company supplies. The DG revealed that they have several other minor facilities in different communities, including Allentown, Charlotte Street, Mamba Rich, Tombo and others which many of them are not in operations due to what he described as human activity.
“Because these minor facilities are not working that’s why we do face challenge of water scarcity in the dry seasons,” he revealed.
Having disclosed some of those challenges, the DG however intimated that they now have huge programs going on which he assured would fully address the challenges of water in the Western Area. He disclosed that the main one is the Angola Water Supply presently being constructed by the Chinese, adding that several facilities to ensure the start of operations of the partnered program had already been installed.
As he assured that most of the other facilities had already been connected to the Guma Dam to obtain water, he said those communities including Hamilton would proudly be the first to enjoy the supply of water. He also mentioned facilities in other communities which he said they have been finding it very difficult to rehabilitate but strongly assured of further building more tanks for adequate water supply. “So we have developed series of projects that would enable us to conserve water during raining season to prevent acquit shortage in the dries.
Guma Valley Director General firmly assures that the first community to benefit from Water Supply this year 2024 would be Imat, adding that Regent and Hill Station would surely be considered next year as he confirmed that the facilities around the community were also under rehabilitation.
For communities in the East region, Guma DG reinforced that they have small challenge with the facility in Allentown that also supplies Calabatown as he confirmed that chances were there but said the source of getting water remains a big challenge. He however revealed that they had developed two new catchments for Allentown and assured if they would be addressing the issue.
The DG gave special thanks to the British confirming that they played a great effort on the facilities the Capital is benefitting today, as he recounted the struggles that were incurring six to seven years ago.
Amongst the major challenges he mentioned as a threat in ensuring that there is adequate water in the Capital where deforestation, other human activities and leakages, urging the Parliament to come in and put in place measures for safety. He assured that they had been doing their best in mending the leakages and further assured of putting more measures in place.
