– VDC Secretary
By: Ahmed Mohamed Kaikai (Voice of Masoro 90.5FM)
The Secretary of Vaama Village Development Committee (VDC), Edward Mambu Kallon has, intimated A-Z that the WASH facility attached to Vaama Community Health Post (CHP), lacked adequate water facility to address the numerous water related problem faced by the village hospital.
The Vaama CHP WASH facility was built in 2020 by Community Action for the Welfare of Children (CAWeC), with support from UK AID geared towards ending the continuous water problem faced by the Vaama hospital which provides medical services to 11 catchment villages in Barri chiefdom Pujehun district.
According to the Vaama Secretary, the modernized WASH facility was built with a solar borehole to supply water adequately to the WASH facilities.
“In 2020 CAWeC built us a modernized WASH facility which includes: 4 room flush toilets and 1 urinal room, 3 bath rooms and a descent laundry structure with 3 compartments.” He noted.
He maintained that the solar borehole stopped working immediately they started utilizing the facility.
“We only used the WASH facility for 2 weeks and since then the solar borehole stopped transporting water to the facilities in the WASH.
We have made several efforts to solve the water scarcity faced by the community hospital but to no avail. We have resulted to locking the WASH facility because we want to maintain hygiene in the hospital environment. There is no way we can use the wash facilities without water. We only have 1 functional bore holes in this entire village.” He explained.
Kallon further revealed that they were expecting CAWeC to train at least an individual from the community with knowledge and skills on how to use and do maintenance on the solar borehole for its sustainability.” He noted.
He ended by calling on government and donor partners to help address the water scarcity faced by his community.
Doris K. Kangoma, a nurse working at Vaama CHP said that they have reported the matter to CAWeC but no action has been taken to ameliorate the water problem. She revealed that their work is greatly hindered due to lack of water in the hospital.
“Even after our delivery work we find it difficult to get water to do the necessary cleaning. We have abandoned the WASH facility due to lack of water.” She said.
Speaking to VOM Radio in a telephone interview, Vandi Sam, an Engineer working for CAWeC said that his organisation is not knowledgable about the water challenge faced by the Vaama CHP.
“We don’t know if the solar borehole had developed a problem.” He said.
He, however, observed that he will report the matter to authorities at CAWeC so that proper action will be taken.
