The Steering Committee of the Freetown WASH and Aquatic Environment Revamping Project (WASHERP/Aquatic) and the Freetown Water and Sanitation Master and Investments Studies (FWSSMPIS), has on Friday 2nd October, 2020 held its inaugural meeting at the Golden Tulip at Aberdeen Freetown. The meeting was convened in order to establish long-term goals of the projects as well as to discuss the challenges that has been envisaged.
In his welcome address, the Managing Director of Guma Valley Water Company, Maada S. Kpenge reminded the Committee members of the President’s determination to achieve universal access to water supply for every citizen by 2028.
Mr. Kpenge said the Master Plan Project will highlight the way forward to permanently address water supply issues in the Western Area, whilst the WASHAERP/Aquatic Project will help to achieve those medium-term goals for Freetown’s water supply by increasing access by 15%, reducing water losses significantly; construction of new facilities and rehabilitating existing service reservoirs thereby making the water supply infrastructure more resilient.
The Guma MD noted that the WASHAERP/Aquatic Project is unique in the sense it is not only dealing with issues related to water supply, but also reforestation of the water catchments in the Western Area, Sanitation, livelihood restoration and job creation.
Speaking during the meeting, Her Worship the Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyer said the Sanitation component of the WASHAERP/Aquatic project which aims to improve sanitation by 7% has a huge potential to benefit the lives of Freetownians as it would complement ongoing strides by the Freetown City Council to properly managed solid and liquid wastes in the municipality. She said the reforestation component of the project also resonates with the “Freetown the Tree Town project” which aim to plant over a million trees to make Freetown a greener, healthier and more inclusive city.
In her statement, the Chairman Board of Directors of Guma Valley Water Company, Hon. Bintu Myers said under the direction of the Board and in line with the vision of the Government to ensure sustainable water supply delivery to all in the country; the Management of Guma has embarked on a systematic but aggressive approach to address the water challenges in the Western Area.
Hon. Bintu Myers said the Board is grateful to the Government and Development partners (African Development Bank, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, DFID, World Bank, MCC, etc.) for the support they have been giving to Guma to implement ongoing projects like the Master Plan, Freetown Water Supply Rehabilitation Project, Freetown Emergency Recovery Project, The Threshold Project; all aimed at improving the performance and sustainability of Guma.
The Guma Chairman said the WASHAERP/Aquatic project is intended to provide the necessary complementarity and maximized the impact of the other ongoing projects to address the challenging water supply situation in the Western Area. She called on members of the Steering Committee to work together to ensure that all the project outputs are sustainable, delivered on time, within budget and to the satisfaction of the people of Sierra Leone.
Delivering his speech at the meeting, the Minister of Water Resources and Chairman of the Steering Committee, Ing. Philip K. Lansana said the Government’s New Direction Agenda for national