Building better water supplies in Freetown, Sierra Leone

Related pages: Sierra Leone homepage | Millennium Development Goal 7: Environment


Children carrying water at Kroo Bay, Freetown, courtesy of Nazia Parvez Recent data produced by UNICEF indicates that less than half of Sierra Leoneans have access to safe water and less than one third have access to sanitation. Sierra Leone is seriously off-track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for water and sanitation. External link, opens in same windowRead the February 2007 update from the UN

The shortage of safe water here profoundly affects the life-chances of children. In fact, Sierra Leone has the highest level of infant mortality in the world (283 out of every 1000 die under 5). Diarrhoeal disease, together with malaria and acute respiratory disease, are the biggest killers in Sierra Leone.

Access levels to safe water are lowest in remote rural areas, however the water supply to Freetown, which is served by the Guma Valley Water Company, is in an increasing vulnerable condition. DFID's £5 million programme in 2007-2008 aims to help local companies and communities to turn this around.

Protecting safe supplies

A woman carries water from Kroo Bay, Freetown, courtesy of Nazia Parvez While Guma Valley Water Company did a good job to maintain water supply to Freetown during the civil war, the network has deteriorated due to lack of maintenance and investment. Leakage rates are high and the system is struggling to cope with increased demand due to the massive influx of people from the countryside to Freetown during the conflict.

In June 2006, Freetown’s water reservoir (Guma) was almost emptied which would have led to a complete failure of supply. Although the water level in the reservoir has now recovered, this event highlighted the fragility of the capital’s water supply.

Many people particularly to the east side of Freetown have to resort to unsafe alternative sources, such as polluted shallow wells, and a cholera threat in Freetown arises each rainy season.

A Cholera Task Force led by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) monitors the high prevalence of diarrhoeal disease, and is on alert for any sharp increase in death rates. DFID supported MoHS and Action Contre la Faim (ACF) in an emergency programme of chlorination of over 400 wells and it appears that the outbreak was contained in 2006.

DFID has agreed a £5million programme of support to Guma Valley Water Company for 2007-2008 – this includes support to strategic planning and prioritised physical improvements to increase water security and access to water, with some complementary support to civil society.

In 2006-2007, DFID is also supporting, through External link, opens in same windowActionAid Sierra Leone, a community group – Public Enterprise Reform Monitoring Group (PERMG) that is assessing the current state of water supply in Freetown to help plan for the future and inform policy.

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Key facts

  • The water supply to Freetown is in an increasing fragile condition, with a deteriorating network unable to cope with increasing demand due to rural-urban migration. The population increased dramatically as people fled into the city during a decade of conflict that ended officially in 2002. Many people have chosen to remain in the capital and current estimates of the population in Freetown give a figure of over 1.2 million – more than double the design capacity of the water system.
  • DFID support will be provided to Guma Valley Water Company (GVWC), in collaboration with World Bank, to improve water security for about 1.2 million inhabitants of greater Freetown
  • The purpose of the programme is to assist government to improve sustainable access to water and sanitation in deprived areas of greater Freetown. The main goal is improved social and economic conditions through increased water security.
     

17 March, 2007